We had an earthquake last night. It measured 5.2 on the Richter scale. Now that may not sound much to the Americans, particularly those Californians amongst you. But it was big enough to wake me up, and I’m a man who has slept through fire alarms.
We do tend to have more sedate natural disasters in this country. Kansas has hurricanes that rip off entire roofs, but when it gets a bit windy in England all that happens is that a couple of chimney pots get blown into next door’s garden. When Bangladesh floods thousands loose their lives, over here some woman in York has to re-plaster her living room. And Tokyo frequently gets terrorized by a rampaging Godzilla, whereas in our village we just have an unusually large duck (it is a very big duck though).
Which is not to say I would actually like more dramatic cataclysms obviously. Even when playing SimCity on the PC I used to play with the disasters switched off. Who wants to spend hours designing an intricately laid out transportation system only to see it burnt to a crisp by an exploding volcano. And anyway, if you turned disasters off you could reduce the budget for the fire service right down to zero. There must have been a lot of cats left to starve in trees in my city. But alas the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. I’m sure the good citizens of Dansville would prefer being hit with the occasional falling cat corpse than live in a city like this:
on Feb 27th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I was going to send an email to make sure you were okay, but then I checked CNN and it said, “Don’t worry. Dan, Kerry, Amy, and Even are alright.”
Avitable’s last blog post..A Letter To My Body
on Feb 27th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
And then I berated them for misspelling Evan’s name. They’ll be issuing a correction tomorrow.
Avitable’s last blog post..A Letter To My Body
on Feb 27th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I’ve been through a few earthquakes, but the only big one was back in ‘72 in California. The bulletin board over my bed fell off the wall and hit me in the head. To this day, I won’t hang anything heavy over a bed just because of that.
Hope all is well.
on Feb 27th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Luckily it wasn’t stronger. I from California and have been through quite a few large quakes. Although it’ll wake you out of a deep sleep, 5.2 definitely isn’t one I’d get out of bed to take cover for.
on Feb 27th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
5.2, that’s cute.
Glad you’re okay!
Whit’s last blog post..A Random Little Post
on Feb 27th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
I didn’t feel a thing!
on Feb 27th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Even a tiny shake would have scared me. But I wake up with loud thunder.
Glad you’re all OK!
Miss Britt’s last blog post..What Would Dorothy Do
on Feb 27th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
5.2…phsh! Amateur.
Tracy’s last blog post..Our Tiny Little Foodie
on Feb 27th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
What about those menacing killer rabbits you have over there? I mean look at the bones!
Jeff’s last blog post..Annoyances Anonymous Meeting Transcripts
on Feb 27th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
We slept right the way through it. But with a 12 week old in the house, it’ll take more than a mere earthquake to wake us (it takes a baby!). Feeling the earth moving ain’t at the top of our to-do list…
(un)relaxeddad’s last blog post..I?m behind with reading your blogs
on Feb 27th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
At least it was something exciting to talk about at work today! Oh, and you nicked the title I was going to use!
Bec’s last blog post..The News has Jumped the Shark
on Feb 27th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
[...] well Dan nicked the title I was going to [...]
on Feb 28th, 2008 at 4:50 am
WOW!
That must have been a surprise for sure!
How are all of the brick buildings in your area??
Glad your okay!!
:)
Jeff S’s last blog post..Gung Hay Fat Choy
on Feb 29th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Glad you’re okay, though I heard the local Etch-A-Sketch Museum was ruined: http://www2.b3ta.com/host/creative/13/1204118301/etchasketchquake.jpg
Holmes’s last blog post..Take the baldheads voting, take them voting
on Mar 3rd, 2008 at 2:16 pm
I don’t hurricanes hit Kansas…but I am glad you came out unscathed by that tremor. That city is trashed in Danville though…