Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

So. I'm lounging on the sofa just before 2 PM, working on my computer (I was telecommuting today), when I hear an odd noise over the A/C fan like it's suddenly windy outside, and hey, look, the chandelier is swaying slightly and the friggin walls are shaking! WTF?? Tropical storm winds and a bloody nor'easter don't make the walls of my house shake.

And then it stops. Good lord, could that have been... an earthquake? Do they even have earthquakes in Virginia? I don't even know what they feel like; I've never experienced one.

Until now.

No longer having access to The Weather Channel since scaling back my cable service some months ago (and does TWC even cover earthquakes?), I of course do the next best thing – I promptly Google "earthquake today", and right there at the top of the search is "Recent earthquakes" at earthquake.usgs.gov, with a 5.8 magnitude in Virginia at 1:51 PM. Holy crap.

This sucker was felt all up and down the east coast. Building evacuations all over DC (and even quite a few around Norfolk, apparently). It's the biggest quake felt in Virginia since 1897, when there was a 5.9. Checking the usgs site just now, I see there were a couple of aftershocks about 1 and 1.5 hours after the original, 2.8 and 2.2 magnitude. Fortunately, there was no tsunami involved...

So I've finally experienced my first earthquake, and a right unsettling experience it was, too. That's enough excitement to last me for a good long while, thank you very much Mother Nature. I don't think I'll be considering a move to California any time soon.