The giant just gave our house another good kick. Earthquakes are weird things, at least at this level. There's more sound than jolt, but enough that it leaves your nerves buzzing. Sounds like something big falling on the roof, yet no rattling dishes or falling pictures. . . .

Uh oh. There's another one.

Maybe I'll sleep in the car.

Oh well, at least it's not a tornado.

Things that make me motion sick:

Riding in the back seat of a car
Boats
Airplanes
Busses
Swings
Teetertotters
Carnival rides
IMax theaters
Any yoga pose that presses the top of my head against the floor
Reclining at a certain angle-- no, I'm not joking.


And now, earthquakes.

The 3.1 jolty one the other day left me a little off.

At 2:20 today, I was standing up, reaching for something on top of a high cabinet, when one of those more subtle, ripply ones went through. Nearly an hour later, I'm on the couch, very queasy, sipping seltzer, and thinking that the meditation incense I usually like was a Really Bad Idea.

In the event of a Big One, I'm going to be as useless as Seregil after a translocation spell.

I'm buying stock in whatever company makes Dramamine.

Something just picked my house up a few inches and dropped it. OK, not really, but it felt that way as a 3.1 earthquake shook up Redlands just now. Checked on line; epicenter 3 miles from my house. It rattled the windows and walls a little, but nothing dramatic. This is the largest of the two I've felt, and for some reason they leave me feeling a little motion sick.

The sonic boom of the space shuttle landing at Edwards Airforce base.
A heavy dump truck rumbling by and rattling the windows.
My neighbor dragging his trash cans to the curb.

After many false alarms, I felt my first real earthquake this morning around 9:30. The walls and ceiling made a few crackly noises, the lamps flickered, and suddenly I felt the couch go a little wobbly. It only lasted a few seconds, but it did strange things to my inner ear, like being in a canoe on slightly choppy water. The dogs were no help at all, not only did they not predict and warn me, like dogs on TV, but they slept through it, too. Useless curs. ;-)

Doug the geographer keeps track of such things on line. There are lots of little quakes around here all the time, but you don't feel them. This one appears to have been a 4.7 20 miles away, so we just caught the edge of it.