Rock Me Baby

There's something to be said for consistency.  I've fulfilled my once-a-year sizable earthquake quota for the fourth year in a row.  Last night, around 2:12 am I was awakened by a slight rocking and low rumbling.  I must be getting used to this kind of thing since my only reaction was to turn my head toward the window to see the shadows of the telephone wires swinging back and forth over the street.  Then it was back to sleep.

According to the USGS, which has a phenomenal earthquake reporting and tracking program, this quake's epicenter was over 106 km deep and about 100 km north of Cali, near the town of Tuluá, registering 4.9 on the Richter scale.  As a colleague at school said today, "that was nothing - the Chileans would have just thought their stomach was growling."

I Feel The Earth Move Under My Feet...

So last night was an exciting night for this Midwesterner. I was sitting in my living room, enjoying the cool night breeze and attmepting to master the future tense of the Spanish language when all of a sudden I felt like I was sitting in boat that was hitting the waves sideways. (For those of you from the "ring of fire," I'm sure you are old pros but this was my first time. I was an Earthquake Virgin, if you will.)

My roommate, Little Miss California, yells down from upstairs, "Stetson! Do you feel that?!" (No, not at all...it must be a very localized tremor; just in your room and the telephone wires outside. Those car alarms going off and purely coincidental.) "Yes, I feel it! What do we do?!?!?!"

And then it was over. Probably only 20 seconds, maybe less, but it felt like more. We went outside on the balcony, because it seemed safer, and I learned that the first tremor is always the biggest and any subsequent aftershocks are never as big. Good to know.

Next week at school we will be having an Earthquake Drill. Duck, cover, wait, and run outside. Yeeesh...give me a tornado anyday! But I guess that's the "sky tumblin' down" part, huh?