La Habra 5.3 Earthquake

Well, all I can say is anchor down your tiki mugs if you live in earthquake country. That's about $240 worth of good art gone tonight. We live next door to La Habra and it shook pretty hard, even for this veteran - though I never got off the couch :)

[ Edited by: Zinctiki 2014-03-28 21:49 ]

[ Edited by: Zinctiki 2014-03-28 22:03 ]

Very upsetting.
It was rockin & rollin. I fear there will be others.

Oh! What a sad sight! But glad you're OK otherwise!

We felt it in West Hollywood as a very gentle swaying... in fact, Manuel, who was walking around in the kitchen at the time, would not have noticed if I hadn't pointed out our tiki lamps and fish floats slowly swinging back and forth.

A very different experience from the St. Paddy's day trembler centered in Westwood (the closest quake epicenter we've ever experienced)... that one was a jarring up and down motion... we heard things tumbling and breaking in the dark... but fortunately upon inspection, only a resin tiki statue bit the dust, and not a single mug was harmed in the process!

We’re pretty close to last nights epicenter. Easy to ride when you’ve got your rum in one hand. Lotsa rattling and light stuff on the floor (books and stuff) but no mug damage. No one hurt-that’s what matters.
Cheers all, stay safe!

Museum Putty is mandatory in SoCal...

We felt the Earthquake pretty good, but it was a slow roller
unlike the usual sharp jolt, so no damage here, condolences
to you inlanders, we will make up for it during the next tsunami....

Good God that scared the hell out of me.
I've got around 50 mugs or so, and no losses.
Lots of them moved, dancing around on the shelves.
I had a Fu Manchu mug turn all the way around on top of
The entertainment center.
I keep telling myself I need to get the putty.

Jeff btd

Yikes! Luckily, in Texas, we don't have to secure against earthquakes. But I wonder,... do they make 'tornado putty'?
Anyway, that museum putty sounds like pretty cheap insurance for your mugs. Amazon sells, or even quicker, pick it up at Home Depot for about $4, before the next aftershock.
QuakeHOLD!

I would like to suggest that all of the SoCal members ship their tiki mugs to me since earthquakes here are few and far between. Once the earthquake storm there is over I'll be glad to return the mugs....at least the one I can find.

gonna be 74 here today, maybe some light rain.
I'll take the earthquakes over the bad weather any day.

Jeff(btd)

KCAL reported it as 5.3 right after the quake. Looks like it was officially a 5.1. I can usually guess them pretty close and figured it was a 5.5 at the time - like Steve Martin in "L.A. Story".

So, after a half-century of accurate detection, I'm right and the Richter Scale is wrong :)

And I'd just put those two mugs up on a wicker shelf as part of an idea for the room. Who'da guessed a freakin' earthquake was gonna hit?!

On 2014-03-29 09:31, ukutiki wrote:
I would like to suggest that all of the SoCal members ship their tiki mugs to me since earthquakes here are few and far between. Once the earthquake storm there is over I'll be glad to return the mugs....at least the one I can find.

What? UPS & FedEx are worse then an Earthquake!
but then again I never got caught in a collapsing building with Marjoe Gortner.

Museum putty is great if whatever you're trying to stick down doesn't get used but I've heard it can be a pain when using it on things like mugs you actually drink out of.

One of my offices is in La Habra and I'm here now. Yikes. I lost a couple of tiki glasses last night and possible some audio gear that came crashing down. My Harmon Kardon receiver weighs about 80lbs.

A lot of my mugs fell, but luckily most of them are still in the bubble wrap and boxes from where I bought them.

On 2014-03-29 12:12, wizzard419 wrote:
Museum putty is great if whatever you're trying to stick down doesn't get used but I've heard it can be a pain when using it on things like mugs you actually drink out of.

Makes me think that it's worth considering some sort of other way to hold them. Maybe with a taut wire, or fishing line, to keep them from falling forward and tilting too much when shaking occurs. Museum putty works great for figurines and "static" collectibles. But many of us mug collectors may actually want to use our items, or take them down to show someone. Dang earthquakes...

If I recall, that is what the Getty uses for some of their displays. Keeping the line at above the center of gravity.

I've had enough time to think about it and I agree that fishing line or similar is best for mugs. I like to take them down or rearrange them and putty makes that difficult. But for now everything is back in their boxes.

Jeez! I just post this and we had another one. Felt like 3.8-4.0. Double-checking the other breakables...

My window unit a/c doesn't cool my apartment on very hot days. I discovered that it gets so hot where my lounge is that the museum wax melts. Another reason to use something in addition to the wax.

I concede that museum putty is not a happy solution to the earthquake problem, in the case of mugs that are actually frequently used or taken down for examination by guests.
The suggestions of wire or fishing line triggered a thought. Nautical style decor is not discordant with tiki decor. I've noticed that the shelves and cabinets in boats - especially seaworthy sailboats - are cleverly designed so that objects are easy to access, but are protected from falling due to shifting seas. It seems the same type of designs could be used to display your mugs, and protect them from shifting and shaking land, too. Mimicking the boat designs might achieve the practical goal, without sacrificing style.

I use fishline. Be careful when you’ve been entertaining wid rum though. I’ve seen a few mugs make some very graceful arc’s through the air when guest’s have wanted to examine a mug more closely and did not see the fishline. Pros and cons to any method you choose. I have most of my mugs up high and out of reach . The grid like cabinets in the pix are wooden shoe storage racks I rescued from a thrift store. Wish I had more than the two I got. The line is secured at one end, passes in and out of the vertical slats and is secured at the opposite end. Passed yesterdays test-cross my fingers for the “big one”
Cheers

*On 2014-03-29 16:29, Limbo Lizard wrote:*Nautical style decor is not discordant with tiki decor. I've noticed that the shelves and cabinets in boats - especially seaworthy sailboats - are cleverly designed so that objects are easy to access, but are protected from falling due to shifting seas. It seems the same type of designs could be used to display your mugs, and protect them from shifting and shaking land, too. Mimicking the boat designs might achieve the practical goal, without sacrificing style.

I made something along these lines with some cafe rod brackets and dowels.

It's technically a whisky shelf, but the same idea should work for mugs.

[ Edited by: nui 'umi 'umi 2014-03-30 17:33 ]

I made something along these lines with some cafe rod brackets and dowels.

It's technically a whisky shelf, but the same idea should work for mugs.

I like! You have inspired me. I’m gonna try it with small diameter bamboo. This time of year I dump a lot into the “green” trash can.
Waste not , want not.
Cheers

This made me laugh: USGS scientist Lucy Jones' advice for Friday night: “Don’t put your child to bed under a tall bookcase that could fall over him tonight."

Anchoring your bookshelves to the wall so they don't fall over is a good way to prevent accidents.
I bought an a-frame bookcase and it came with a wall anchor kit.

Quake Hold makes a line of products. http://www.quakehold.com

Can you tell that I've only lived in earthquake country for 8 years? :)
Experiencing tornadoes and floods never rattled my nerves like earthquakes do.

On 2014-03-31 08:59, tikilongbeach wrote:
I bought an a-frame bookcase and it came with a wall anchor kit.

I moved from quake country and now live on the East coast of Florida. We often buy book cases and other furnishings and they automatically come with pre-packaged quake anchors. Everybody laughs about it, but I know that 120 years ago we had a quake so strong here that the all-masonry St. Augustine lighthouse rocked and almost toppled.

Even if you're not on a fault line, other things could cause quake like shakes too. There was a quake in the Midwest where they believe it was caused by the aquifer being dry and collapsing.

I just found cracks in the stairwell of the building I work in from the earthquake. I have two cases of water in my car, just in case.

Looking at the seizmograph web site the other day,
it showed that there was also quakes in Oklahoma and Wyoming.
It's not just west coast, but mainly.

Jeff(btd)

When the main quake hit, I was just getting out of the shower in my Enchanted Tiki Bathroom, and was drying off, & noticed my tiki birds on their perch & wooden wind chime were swaying back and forth! Other than that, no damage or anything toppling over thank goodness!

On 2014-03-29 07:42, Limbo Lizard wrote:
Yikes! Luckily, in Texas, we don't have to secure against earthquakes. But I wonder,... do they make 'tornado putty'?
Anyway, that museum putty sounds like pretty cheap insurance for your mugs. Amazon sells, or even quicker, pick it up at Home Depot for about $4, before the next aftershock.
QuakeHOLD!

Just secured about 30 mugs and a few Hula girls down with just two packages of this stuff. Not bad really, when you think less than $10 for the Quake Hold and about 2 hours of time to secure over $2000 in mugs.

Please don't take the chance.... Always better to be safe than sorry.

Ditto! what Chippy said.

Just secured about 30 mugs and a few Hula girls down with just two packages of this stuff. Not bad really, when you think less than $10 for the Quake Hold and about 2 hours of time to secure over $2000 in mugs.
Please don't take the chance.... Always better to be safe than sorry.

I can't recommend this stuff enough. As a lifetime LA resident, and Northridge Quake veteran, I have everything tacked down with it, 400 mugs on display, and assorted ephemera...I buy it packs at a time. Though I think I get a little more mileage per pack than Chippy :wink: