Thursday, May 1, 2008

Did you feel that?

The other day we had a pretty good sized earthquake here on the central coast. It was located near Templeton and was a 3.9 on the rector (sp?) scale. I felt it here in San Luis and was not too pleased.

As some of you know I am quite terrified of earthquakes. It seems like the building I work in is always shaking…weather it be a big truck driving by, someone on the roof, or a really heavy footed person, I always think it is time to duck, cover and hold!

So on Tuesday when the shaking started I froze and observed. What I noticed was that my computer monitor was definitely shaking, and that had never happened before. The shaking went on for a few seconds, and I was just about ready to get in a doorway when it stopped. Then the scared/anxious feeling set in.

My boss was on the phone when it happened, and my other co-works were away from their desks, so I wasn't able to shout out 'IS THIS AN EARTHQUAKE?' After my boss got off the phone she came out and checked to see if I was ok. When I start any job I make sure to tell my new boss that I have a fear of earthquakes and that I get migraine headaches. It's my disclaimer. Anyway I was impressed she remembered since that was over two years ago. I think she noticed I was a bit shaken up and did what she could to calm my nerves.

Later that night I had told my mom about it, and then even later she sent me an email saying that there was a 5.4 earthquake near Willow Creek. She was totally trying to one up me! I really didn’t think a 5.4 sounded that big…(who knows why, I must have been high or something, because now that I think about it, the big quakes in Humboldt during the 90’s were over 6.0…5.4 is pretty dang close!).

So I decided to check out my favorite earthquake site, and found the following image:

Man did I feel like a dumbo! That square is GIGANTIC compared to the little puny square from the quake we had! You can barely even see that square anymore! No wonder my mom was making a big deal about it. Sorry mom! I now take back my unenthused attitude. You were right…again.

3 comments:

Sarah said...

Man I hated those HC quakes in the 90's. Especially the ones at night. So scary! Glad you're ok after your little earthquake :)

Anonymous said...

Your mom didn't tell you that she didn't even know that we were having an eathquake. The dogs and I knew. They didn't like it, one bit.

Unknown said...

Hey! I like the way Daddy takes the oomph out of my earthquake story! I didn't feel it, that's true. But 5.4!
You can't argue with the facts. It might have been deeper in the earth's crust so we didn't feel it as much. Plus, it shook up the dogs and we all know you gotta pay attention to animals, esp. when there might be a Tsunami coming after the quake! Oh--I hope that doesn't make you nervous! :)