Are you new to earthquake country? Do you know how to live in earthquake country? Go to this website to download or order your free copy of Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country.
The Spring 2006 editions of the handbooks are available in English and Spanish for the San Francisco Bay Region and for Southern California. They may also be available at various local community locations, such as hardware stores.
Links on the website to other areas include similar publications for the Northern California Coastal Region, Nevada and Alaska. Please become informed and also teach your family members and friends about living in earthquake country.
I never thought I’d see the day when I’d be sharing modern office space with so-called Norwegian Rats! This is the 21st Century, after all. Yet a variety of construction projects on the business campus, including a parking structure, seem to have disrupted the rats’ normal haunts. And if our building has them, undoubtedly the one directly in front of the in-progress parking structure has them somewhere, even if they’re down below, where the pipes and electrical boxes are located.
However, our building actually has them in the cubicles where we work each day. A month ago they were just running around at night, stealing energy bars and other goodies. Then they progressed to oatmeal packets. As they have become bolder, or more desperate, after food was taken home at night, they’ve been found after 6 a.m., then after 7 a.m., now after 8 a.m. And they run like racehorses! This past week, we discovered they’d chewed through bags of coffee. Next day, they gnawed on someone’s cough drops. That afternoon, I took my cough syrup home, since it’s in a plastic bottle. Visions of rats sitting in my chair, swigging on the stuff, were just too much.
Not to gross out anyone, but at least five rats have been trapped and killed during daylight hours. I’m sure the costs for the exterminators to visit each day are mounting, so our Facilities employees have been helping to check the traps. I notice they’re wearing rubber or synthetic gloves, like the cleaning staff are encouraged to use in bathrooms. In place of exterminator equipment, they carry boxes that look suspiciously like those that online booksellers use to ship small packages of books. (I’m sure they more likely come from the office supply business the company uses.)
As far as many employees are concerned, our biggest fear is that the rats may carry fleas that transmit disease. We’re definitely hoping someone will rid us of them quickly. Whether anyone has notified the health department or OSHA, I have no idea. Shutting the building down completely in an attempt to eradicate the vermin may not be at all feasible for the management of the business park itself. Other high-profile companies also occupy space in the same building. It would be interesting to know if the rats have walked up the next flights of stairs. More likely, they are running.
Till next time…
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