An earthquake centered in northern Virginia just rattled a huge part of the eastern seaboard. I think our building in Framingham, Mass. shook some, but I’m not sure.
Mood music:
We’ve had quakes in New England. They happen often, in fact, but they are usually small. This was bigger than usual, but I wasn’t bothered.
Like hurricanes and other natural hazards, the thought of earthquakes used to terrify me. When I made my first trip to California, I think the worry of earthquakes sat in the back of my head the whole time.
I’ve felt the ground and walls shake many times, though, and it was always in my head. I used to have anxiety and panic attacks before I got my issues figured out, and sometimes, when in the middle of one, I would feel the sensation of things around me shaking.
I can’t really remember the last time that happened. I’ll chalk that up as a good thing.
As for today’s quake, the worst of it is a steady stream of bad jokes on Twitter.
Carry on…
When I was a kid, I used to be absolutely petrified a tornado would strike and we’d be asleep, so it was nearly impossible for me to get to sleep if there were any storms in the area at bedtime or if I heard on the weather report that storms would roll through. Of course this was the result of a story…
My parents (when they were first married and had no kids) lived in a small town in the Midwest. They thought it was hilarious that my father came home from work one day, took a nap, and slept through a tornado that leveled the garage next to the house. They told that story often and would laugh about it. Being a rather more serious child and suspecting at the time that my parents weren’t the most watchful people in the world, I just knew it would happen again and I was not going to be caught off guard. heh. I eventually grew out of it when I got to my teens.