I was surprised to learn that Crescent City CA had had a tsunami before. And, as a result, they were ready this time. (I read: the only CA city designated a "tsunami ready" by the feds.) Perhaps you have to have seen it to believe that it could happen to you.
 

I saw a funny story on KTLA and it talked about the alarms going off in Crescent City, but the beachgoers didn't run for their lives. They flipped out their cell phones and started calling to ask what all the sirens were about. It reminded me of the time there was a tsunami warning in a beach community I was at years ago. The alarms went off and it was hard to get to high ground, because so many people were running towards the beach "to see it." I don't know if we'll see anything like that again after 12/26, but the people on the beach standing around calling people was pretty funny.
 

How strange. I'd rather not be talking on my cell phone when I die.

Is anyone out there worried? I think all this shaking and spewing might build up to something big. But then I can afford to think that; I'm not in California.
 

This is embarrassing, but I'd probably be on the phone. Running, but on the phone. Apologizing to my mother for ever having been a bad kid.

Or very possibly standing there trying to use the phone to take a picture...
 

There was another seismic event today. I was at home for one eq, and thought it was the construction outside at first. For the other I was in the computer lab, listening to the glass ceiling above me creak and squeal. I'm so glad my last thought was not t(3.470)= -1.284, p = .424. That would have just been sad.
 

I've had a couple of moments when I thought I was about to die--seriously, there was a gun involved in one--and I have to admit that I was trying to remember if I was wearing acceptable underwear.

Sad but true.
 

My mom says she felt the second Riverside quake as "a slight swaying motion" in L.A.
 

I have grown probably too sanguine about earthquakes. Which is funny; it's the first thing people in the Midwest ask you when you announce that you're moving to California. Aren't you afraid of earthquakes?

Really, the first thing. They keep the "fruits, nuts, and flakes" joke to themselves for a moment.

To which I pointed out, fourteen years ago when I made this move, that I was also afraid of tornadoes, one of which I'd seen in person, but that hadn't kept me out of Minnesota.

But fourteen years...I suppose I should think about how "the big one" hasn't come in that time frame, and what that means.
 

Well, it's weird. I'm terrified of earthquakes (on all-y'all's behalf) now that I'm not in California.
 

The last earthquake we had in Washington was a close call for me because I was standing next to a brick building that didn't want to keep standing. But I was so jealous later of people who were in shopping mall parking lots or whatever and got to "enjoy" it. Just focus on the fact how cool it was to feel the earth moving under their feet, so to speak.