Did You Feel That?

Early this afternoon there was an earthquake centered in Virginia which measured 5.9 on the Richter scale. Apparently, its tremors could be felt as far away as Maine and it caused some structural damage to buildings in New York and Washington, DC. For the rest of us, it was more subtle. My dad was in his office in Boston and he said that he felt a wave of nausea, almost like motion sickness, but couldn't tell if something was going on or if it was only him until his coworkers asked him if he felt the shaking too and they saw the blinds swaying. Now, I was on the road at the time and I didn't feel a thing. I have to say, I'm a little bummed out about 1t.

I can say that now, because no one was hurt and it doesn't sound like there were any areas that suffered major damage (except our East Coast pride, as now all the people in California are laughing at us because they don't even get out of bed for a 5.9). It's just I've never felt an earthquake before and I was kind of curious to see what it was like. It's not like you can go on an 'earthquake safari' and pay for the experience - these things have to happen on their own. Now, I'm not saying that I want this to become a regular thing. In fact, quite the opposite. I'm pretty sure the reason I'm so bummed about missing this earthquake is the accompanying feeling that it might have been my only shot. The only thing I got out of this was two hours of my computer acting up as apparently Verizon's systems were overloaded by people calling and texting. [Sidebar: For the record, I refuse to be one of those people who didn't feel anything, but are saying they did for attention. I can always tell the people who do that. They are the ones who are quiet at first until they hear everyone's stories and then they take little details from each, but ratchet the drama up to 11. I know those girls all too well.]

I think the happiest people on the planet are the local news affiliates. They were probably looking at another day of talking about a hurricane that may or not hit us and a Presidential election which is still a 15 months away. Now they can spend the next three days running stories about people's experiences during the earthquake (which are only going to get more dramatic over time) and then features about what you can do to earthquake-proof your home. Lastly, they will have the graphics department whip up something fancy to go underneath the headline, "Will it happen again?" I mean, this is Boston. Most of the buildings here are old and even the ones that aren't probably aren't build up to earthquake code; the news stations could run with this for days. They say fear drives the news and there is a lot of material to work with here.

The only people who might be more excited than the news people are the guys watching the New England Richter scale, because this is the most action they've ever seen. I imagine they have a lot of slow days. I would equate it to being a US border guard who gets assigned to Oklahoma: sure it's an easy gig and the pay is alright, but you have to get discouraged knowing you aren't ever seeing any action. I'm pretty sure the New England earthquake watch is the assignment all the kids who barely made it out of geology class get. But for one day they get to be rockstars and show up on the evening news. They'd better get while the getting is good, though. Because tomorrow the only way that scale is moving is if a large line of trucks rumble through the Ted Williams tunnel.