Earthquake

I began getting half panicked texts from a friend. People in her neighborhood had run outside and were shouting "Earthquake! Earthquake!  Brrrrrrrrr! Brrrrrr!" repeatedly. People here traditionally believed that earthquakes are caused by a giant under the earth moving around and that if you make enough noise he will stop. They would run outside and shout and beat on pots and pans

Last night just before 9pm I was standing in the kitchen and started feeling dizzy and a bit off balance. I grabbed the counter and then realized we were having an earthquake. I could then see the kitchen door swinging back and forth on its hinges. I looked at the clock to note the time. The quake went on and on, swaying back and forth. No hard jolts, just swaying back and forth. I began wondering if we ought to go outside or what but it wasn't hard, just very, very noticeable! It was more than 2 minutes from when I started looking at the clock to when the door seemed to finally stop moving. Maybe people weren't making enough noise to stop it sooner!

There was no damage here, just temporary dizziness, and a lot of folk having a hard time calming down enough to get to sleep. I booted up the computer and saw there had been an off shore tectonic-related quake a few hundred kilometers away of 7.9. Wow, imagine what the folk at the epicenter felt!