Shake, Rattle, & Roll

Well, both my wife and I woke up at 4:30 this morning...both to yell at our son for shaking the bed. What is funny is that my wife was in my son's bed (he was having a rough night with "monsters in my closet" and I was in our bed, and my son was actually at that point in with me). So my wife was yelling at no one and I was yelling at a child asleep on the bed motionless. Meanwhile, the screenporch was bouncing up and down on its supports, the walls were clearly shaking, and the headboard to our bed was rattling against the wall.
Now this isn't an all to uncommon phenomenon here in the heart of the prairie as we have plenty of "big winds" and of course T-Storms & even Tornados & Microbursts that shake the house even worse. They all bring with them a lot of noise though, and this morning it was eerily silent. We got up and checked the house for damage. She lived in California for many years and I was stationed there for a while myself so we both knew from experience that this had all the tell-tale signs of an earthquake...you just don't EXPECT that on the prairie. We thought maybe there had been a big explosion out at the ADM plant but we are close enough to that that we would have HEARD it and not just felt it. It had to be an earthquake.
As you most likely know by now, it was in fact an earthquake striking to our southeast here in the heart of the Illinois. No rivers flowed backwards and early reports indicate little damage and no injuries so this wasn't the monster mid-west quake they predict will someday shake the prairie again like it did way back 1815 in New Madrid, Missouri where it made the Mississippi flow North for a time. I'm sure the next few weeks will be filled with news features on "how to survive the big one when it comes" or "what should be in your earthquake survival kit" or "is the end coming soon" and I just know the Global Warming evangelists will be out preaching that this is yet another sign of death and destruction that awaits mankind unless we all buy hybrids and change to fluorescent bulbs.
We survived the big shake of '08, the biggest here in Illinois since the big shake of '68. Damage free, worry free, and not very likely to be watching the local news for a few weeks as I am just not in the mood for their "special reports" on our impending doom. Have to try and find Bill Haley & the Comets singing "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" today and give it a spin on the old turntable. Have a great weekend