Sunday, May 11, 2008

My First Earthquake

It was a quiet Saturday morning, it was my day off and I was asleep. In the middle of a particularly entertaining dream, I feel a jolting sensation as if someone is shaking me awake. I open my bleary eyes ready to punch someone, but to my surprise no one is around yet the shaking continues. I am utterly confused. In my sleepy stupor it begins to dawn on me what is happening - an earthquake! Before I can panic or try to enjoy the ride it is over. I look around briefly and then glance at the clock - 7:52AM. I mutter out loud, "earthquake... I'm alive... cool." I immediately roll over and go back to sleep. I wake up two hours later not sure if I was dreaming or if it was real. By the evening I have completely forgotten about it. Robert gets home from work at 6 and the first question he asks is "Did you feel the earthquake?" So it was real! I described my dreamlike experience and ask him to give his accounting: Robert was awake and getting ready for work. He began to hear a distant deep moan that grew closer. The sound quickly intensified until it resembled a freight train. Suddenly the entire house shifted violently to the north followed by another sudden shift back to the south. Then the house shook for another three to four seconds in its place. Today I looked up the quake on the USGS website, it was a 6.7:

1 comment:

Angela J. Smith said...

Ben, you know the San Francisco earthquake was a little more than a 6.7. That's a major earthquake even by California standards. You be careful on that rolling island.

I check your blog frequently and usually laugh my ass off.

Thanks for keeping it updated.

Check out my Mississippi photos from the doc Brian Dempsey and I are working on. I plan to enter it in the 09 Nashville Film Festival.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithangj/