rock & roll: SoCal style

Yes, we had another earthquake today. As you can see, they happen all the time. Most of them are too small or deep in the ground to actually feel. But around 11:45 this morning, there was a biggun that was 5.8 magnitude and it was about 30 miles from my house. So it was nice and shaky here for a few seconds. I'm going to guess between 10 and 15 seconds long. The lamps swung, the cats woke up, but that was it for us. We haven't felt any of the aftershocks or anything, so I'm hoping that it's going to be calm the rest of the day.

It's funny how when I have traveled to the Midwest or East Coast how people will immediately say "California? How can you live there? Oh no, too many earthquakes for me thankyouverymuch!" which is amusing because yeah, we have earthquakes and they're unpredictable, but I seriously don't think I have actually felt one since... hm... maybe 2002? And it was the same deal. 15 seconds of shaking and then it was done. Most of the 'daily' quakes are under 2 points on the Richter scale, which essentially means that if you were blinking your eyes when it happened, you probably didn't feel it. Whereas the Midwest gets crazy tornadoes and flooding and the East Coast gets winter weather like you've never seen. And all of that lasts for days and weeks and months. And as of this post (an hour post-quake) there have been no reports of damage or injuries and the only inconvenience was a temporary (approx. 5 mins) loss of cell phone service for Verizon customers (which I am not). So, yeah, I think 15 seconds of 'whoa' every few years is a fair trade.

*update* 2:30pm: My aunt heard a strange noise in her house and called her husband home from work - thinking the hissing was a leaking pipe or gas line. He rushed home and they located the sound in a closet. It was a board game with a wind-up timer that must have shifted. He literally lifted the box and it dinged. So, in fairness, there was some damage done to my family's sanity and also a board game shifted on a shelf.