Shaken Up

The 7.2 earthquake on Easter was very scary. In California you get used to earthquakes and they're a little exciting but this one passed the exciting stage and went straight to 'oh shit!'. I usually don't feel earthquakes unless I am sitting perfectly still and I was in the backyard with Jeff and my in laws doing demo and the whole yard was moving up and down and there was a really loud roar and it just seemed to go on and on....it was the largest earthquake I ever felt and was actually very scary ( all I could think of was 'please God, let my $400k home that I haven't moved in to yet survive this!). I was home sick the next couple of days and laying on the couch I could feel every aftershock. There were probably 3 or 4 good ones (over 4.0) everyday for the first couple of weeks and now they are just every few days. We had a 5.1 a few weeks ago which happened while I was at work (which is on the 11th floor of a highrise downtown) and because our building is on rollers we really feel it. I enjoy watching people who are not used to quakes, usually transplants from the midwest or the south who think a quake is the scariest thing but don't think twice about tornadoes or hurricanes that happen several times a year. A few minutes ago we just had a 5.7. The first thing you hear is a rumble and then you hear the closet doors and windows rattle and then comes the shaking. This one started little and just when I thought it was going to be another little after shock it got stronger and louder. Not the gentle rolling type, the jerky kind which gets your heart beating a little faster wondering when it is going to stop. Jeff's main concern was our new flatscreen. "The TV is fine!" says Jeff....

Check out how many earthquakes we've had just today (6/14)!

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqscanv/Quakes/quakes_all.html

I'm too lazy to count but since midnight last night we've probably had about 100 in the area, 15 or so that were significant. As a science nerd I know that all these little quakes are good. They release a little more pressure from those behemoth tectonic plates and lessen worries about the 'big one' a little bit more. But, that's just a part of living in beautiful California! I never have to shovel snow or de-ice my car, we don't have bugs, humidity is rare and we don't even know what a tornado watch is. I can be in the mountains in an hour, the desert in an hour and th beach in 10 minutes. Bad weather is an overcast day. I can handle a little shake every now and then!