Nadine, Our Little Feathery Oracle

Nadine started yelling her 'danger' call again non-stop tonight, so I knew we were in for another earthquake of size somewhere. She started in around 1AM and kept it up until about 20 minutes or so after the earthquake had passed around 2:10AM, a 5.1 about two hundred miles south of us. I was up anyway (got me a double dose of pain/insomnia the last few days) but in the other room, and when I had gone out to check on her around 1:45AM or so the baby chicks were also alert, standing around being still like they were all listening for something. Normally they are asleep at that time, or are in varying stages of eat/play/sleep. Not this time, they were ALL standing & listening. Creepy.

I stuck my head out the front door, listening for any bark/howling dogs (THEY had been going off around Midnight to 1AM) but everything was quiet. Except for our local mockingbird who was barking HIS 'danger' call along with Nadine. It was that eerie, too-quiet thing, too.

So far Nadine has pre-warned us of at least three bigger earthquakes--she's 4 years old this month and ignores smaller ones, only seeming to click in on either 4.3+ quakes that are right under us, or larger quakes farther away. Jake and Scout also react, but in a lesser way, not as vocal. Nadine also yelled about the 7.2 quake in Mexico on Easter Sunday, but that day she yelled for a longer time, about 2 hours beforehand--maybe Pwaves start happening earlier for bigger quakes, or are bigger and more easily sensed for bigger quakes...? She also had a strong, dramatic reaction for about 2 hours beforehand to the 4.3 earthquake March 17th that was centered right under us. I've never read up on P-waves, so I dunno.

It's pretty cool seeing the 'animals sense P-waves' thing in action, but I wish the damned earthquakes would have the common courtesy to not happen in the wee hours of the morning!

edit: Earthquake count for the week for CA/NV currently at 2,956, we're closing in on the big 3,000 mark!

I'm Not The Only One!

OK, people are acting and driving today like they've been pithed. Behind the wheel they are distracted, and when in motion are driving like they are being chased by the cops--reckless and not paying attention, and ALL in a big hurry.

Ditto for people NOT driving. Pedestrians are crossing streets at high speed without looking, we even saw a homeless couple having a walking screaming arguement right down the middle of a busy 6 lane major street, weaving in and around cars, throwing things and waving their arms. Everyone seems on edge.

Dunno if people are tensed up and waiting, maybe reacting to the P-waves of the earthquakes? Whatever it is, I'm glad to be home again from the grocery store and AWAY from it. Criminy.

Oh, and silly me, worrying about the local earthquake count nearing 2000.

It's just broken the 2,400 mark.

Imminent?

Yeah...don't like the larger earthquake clusters forming all around us at ALL. The saying of, 'When you have more earthquakes, you have more earthquakes' is whispering in my ear...

I thinking it's time for southern Californians to grin at each other and hold on. My animals seem to agree and are nervous and squirrely. Just for comparison this map, on any given day, normally shows about 340-360 earthquakes.

Today it's closing in on 2000.

Mother Nature...

...does love to have her own brand of fun. This morning at 4AM, it was a 4.4 earthquake, shallow, basically epicentered right under us. I happened to be awake with a screaming head cold, and was closing the bathroom window when it hit. For a second, the way the house moved, I thought the window had fallen out of it's frame. I had an instant to think, Ah, swell. A broken window at 4 o'clock in the morning... THEN, I got bounced straight UP and straight DOWN again, with the floor basically slapping me on the soles of both feet. Odd sensation, and damn did it sting!

By then I knew what it was, and moved to the bathroom door, waiting for it to either 1. Get worse, or, 2. Go away. Today it chose #1. As the noise increased, I saw my husband stir and start to get up, so I called to him and my daughter, 'Earthquake, get up, get in the doorway!' which is our family earthquake response. Even small quakes are great for practice for this.

When you grow up in earthquake country you learn to quickly gauge their potential. Since this one was continuing to bounce the house and making LOTS of loud, I'm-not-kidding-around snapping/cracking sounds, I went to my daughter's room, flipped on the light and helped her out of bed, bringing her to the Designated Doorway in our house, my husband joining us. Meanwhile the birds were flipping out, but all we could do was call to them that it was alright. It was over pretty quick after that, not much rolling afterwards.

We stayed up a bit after, but nothing else happened, so back to bed we went. After the sun came up, I did the usual house inspection inside & out, but found nothing more than an extension of an already existing earthquake wall crack in the front room.

I found that my kitchen wall clock had turned completely upside down, and a few other things had been knocked over.

It also woke Geraldine, the tortoise, up from hibernation in my pantry, so she came forth today.

I can only assume she'd left a wake up call with Mother Nature, and this was it.

Wow, What A Ride!

Last night we had a 4.7 hit about 16 miles away from us...close and shallow enough for us to get some REALLY good action out of it.

I now know what it feels like to have your house BOUNCE. Three times. While you are standing in it. The quake was close enough for us to experience all of the subtleties of an earthquake: The sound of it approaching--something like wind rushing through tall grass, the initial rumbling and rolling, the sudden intensifying of the jolting that transforms it from 'oh hey, an earthquake' to 'HEY, an earthquake!', the undulation of walls, floors and furniture, and the Big Finish: BANG, BANG, BANG! Ungodly noisy, it was. All of my windows clattered on that one. And then the slow, continued rolling and shaking as it slowly abated, over at least 30 seconds long.

Anyway, it was good practice for us and the kid, who at first didn't notice it at all until we called her over into the doorway. Our house now sports a few new cracks, and a couple of the old ones have gotten bigger. Plus the phones are down, both landline and cell. Nadine the crow did NOT like it at all, and cawed at us like WE did it. Maggie, one of our hens who is indoors right now recovering from an illness, ran and hid under my desk.

We did feel two aftershocks soon afterwards, but nothing since. Turns out the strength of the quake radiated nicely in our direction and it was a shallow one, which also lends itself to being felt in every scrumptious detail.

At least the incubators didn't take a dive!

Earthquake Weather!

I used to have a boss who would practically foam at the mouth whenever someone used this phrase, which since we worked in a dental office in southern California, was pretty darned frequently. For some reason patients would figure that since he was a doctor, he MUST KNOW about all things scientific, or even pseudoscience--of which there is a multitude, as everyone knows.

Be that as it may, every time we have this strange, still, hot-during-the-day-and-cool-at-night weather, it summons up the spectre of 'Earthquake Weather'. Everyone tosses off the phrase lightly, but still with a nervous laugh. Today was a perfect example, and tonight it suddenly got VERY foggy, but still with not the slightest breeze. It's as if southern California is holding it's breath in anticipation. I've noticed it makes people decidedly on-edge and jumpy. To make matters worse, yesterday and today we DID have a couple of minor tremors, somewhere between 2.1 and 2.9 on the Richter scale, pretty much right under us. Not much if you aren't right there at the epicenter, but when you are it gets your attention. We used them to practice our family earthquake drill and N. got into the designated doorway quickly and without the usual dawdling when asked to do something. Afterwards we discussed again what to do in an earthquake, etc. Good practice.

I really like fog, as long as I can stay home and enjoy it--driving in it sucks. I do wish there was a bit of a breeze though, as the air is very still and dead. Uck.

Sharing The Wealth...

For those of you who cannot afford to take your summer vacation here in California this year, just thought we'd share:

In the last week, Illinois had a magnitude 3.0 earthquake, a 2.5 in eastern Tennesee, a 3.2 in western Montana, a 3.6 in Utah and a 3.5 in Washington state.

Yer welcome! :)

Y'all make sure and stick those loose geegaws down, now...they do hurt a mite when they fly off and smack ya in the head.