Well, that was quite an interesting experience: we had an earthquake here in Virginia.
About 4pm, I was sitting at the desk in my spare bedroom, puzzling over a possible production problem with Sara’s DVD. Suddenly, everything started to vibrate — at first, I thought it was a gust of wind, but then I realized that the entire house was swaying back and forth. The ink cartridges sitting on the table wobbled. My chair sort of moved. The slats of my old bed, leaning up against a shelf, started to slip and fall.
Then, it slowed down. I heard more stuff move, and thought that the cat was getting into something, but then realized that the shaking had started again. It started to slow, and things kept swaying for another 10 seconds or so.
Then I began to wonder what the hell had happened. Usually, strong gusts of wind can move my house, but one can hear the gust as it hits. No such thing this time. A truck rumbling by? Didn’t hear anything.
I started to think that maybe I had become dizzy or something as a lingering side-effect of the migraine I had on Sunday. I turned on the news, but no mention of it. Was I crazy?
Finally, about 15 minutes later, the local news confirmed: it was an earthquake, measuring 4.5 about 30 miles west of Richmond — about 100 miles from my house.
The whole thing made me feel rather nauseous and scared. And now, about an hour later, I feel oddly excited, like I’m looking forward to any aftershocks…
