Thursday, January 21, 2016

I Feel The Earth Move Under My Feet

We've been doing a "Mad Men" (the TV series) marathon in recent weeks. Before we left the United States in 2011, we were up-to-date with the series through Season 3. We finally have the entire series, all seven seasons available and, since so much time has passed, we started from the beginning. Today, we sat mid-Season 6 and enjoyed lunch ala San Geraldo. Suddenly, I felt the sofa shake. Then the entire room started to shake and the plants began to sway.

"Earthquake," we both said.

After our years in Southern California, the feeling was familiar. It was also mild enough to not cause us (well, me) much concern.

Besides, how bad could it be? The cats were still asleep. Dudo and Moose only showed up in the living room, when they heard the TV go off, thinking we were finished with lunch and it was their treat time.

We went out on the terrace and saw business as usual down below and on the beach.  No one outside seemed to have even noticed.

We checked the news for some details, I gave the cats their treats, San Geraldo took a pill, and we watched the rest of our show.

It turns out there was a series of about 7 earthquakes off the northern coast of Morocco (about 150km/93 miles) beginning at 2:47 p.m. our time and continuing for about an hour. The first was magnitude 5.1 followed within two seconds by two more of similar magnitude. Those are the three we felt.

WE'RE THE BLUE DOT AT FUENGIROLA.


Really, I just thought all the shaking was due to my close proximity to San Geraldo. (I've been feeling that for years.)

30 comments:

  1. I grew up in California and was accustomed to earthquakes, but I haven't experienced one in years.

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    1. Stephen:
      We didn't experience our first California quake until 1993. We were non-plussed by most of them for the next nearly 20 years. But this was our first since leaving.

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  2. Yeah, I, too, know all about the California Shakes. I do not miss them.

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    1. Bob:
      I think maybe I'm too childish to worry much about earthquakes. The first one we experienced in Calfornia was the Northridge Quake. We were in Palm Springs for the weekend and were awakened by the bed shaking across the floor. Jerry rasped, "Mitchell, EARTHQUAKE!!!" I responded, "I know. Isn't it cool?!?"

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  3. The only earthquake I've ever "felt" was when we lived in Alaska one summer. Mostly I just had to straighten all the stuff hanging on the office walls. So... what kind of pill did SG take to calm down? Personally a glass of wine would have sufficed.

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    1. Sharon:
      Alaska has had some scary earthquake/tsunamis episodes. Glad you weren't in the middle of one of those.

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  4. We have only seen up to and including Season 2 in MadMen World(binge watching). Now we will have to finish the rest of the episodes to catch up to you guys!

    Earthquakes (knock on wood) haven't bothered us here, but as soon as I type this fact we will no doubt have one.

    Please take you guys, OK!

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    1. Ron:
      I'm knocking wood for you! We are loving Mad Men (although we're not necessarily loving the Mad Men themselves).

      Delete
  5. I am not that good in revolving restaurants, so I suspect if I ever feel an earthquake I would feel similar.....dizzy etc.
    I assume the pill worked for SG?
    We did a similar marathon for Six Feet Under.

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    1. Jim:
      We also did the Six Feet Under marathon... twice, and have been talking about doing it again. Jerry doesn't much like revolving restaurants. I love them. But we experienced one earthquake in California that made it feel like we were on rolling seas, and that one did make me motion-sick.

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  6. Weird the kitties didn't wake up. Our island gets lots of earthquakes around 4.5 but I have yet to feel the earth move...in regard to earthquakes that is :)

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    1. Cheapchick:
      The cats were in anoother room, so I suppose they could have woken up. But they sure weren't concerned and only came strolling out when they thought it was treat time. We lived through some decent-sized quakes in Southern and Northern California, but we were fortunately never near the epicenter of the bigger ones. But some of the ones we experienced did feel like amusement park rides.

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  7. happy to hear all is well at your house; but what a scare!

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    1. anne marie:
      I don't know which one of us is more rational: Jerry, who gets a bit nervous or I, who act like a kid and think it's really cool. (Probably Jerry.)

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  8. Holy cow. Never lived in California, but we had one small one in the middle of the night in St Louis, and it woke us, because the bed was rolling around a bit. Odd feeling!

    Loved Mad Men, and miss it. We watched the first two seasons marathon style, then picked it up weekly. Have you watched The Sopranos? Or Breaking Bad? Both were shows that I never had any interest in, and I was sure I wouldn't like.... Took me about two episodes of each to crave more! Really enjoyed them.

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    1. Judy:
      We have watched both The Sopranos and Breaking Bad twice through. Brilliant! The last earthquake we experienced in California came in waves for about 45 seconds in our area. We were home and stood under a door frame (a safer place). The waves were so bad, I actually told Jerry if it didn't stop soon I was going to throw up from motion sickness. It stopped!

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  9. Shake it up, baby! Twist and shout! Stay safe, though. Earthquakes near the ocean can get scary.

    I got into The Sopranos. Never watched Mad Men, but I've dated them and that wasn't fun. But hey, whatever makes you guys happy, I support. xo

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    1. Robyn:
      We loved The Sopranos and watched the entire series twice. I worked with Mad Men in the '70s. It amazing me how realistic that hideousness actually is. I had it in my head that we didn't have to worry about tsunamis here. Not so! They just don't tend to be as big as they are on the Atlantic. At least we're not on the ground floor!

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  10. Awww, what a sweet thing to say; so romantical!

    Was staying with a friend in California when there was a little shake... she came running into the bedroom, sure I would be hysterical, According to her, I rolled over in bed, said "you rang?" and immediately started making that nearly imperceptible sound which rude people might characterise as a (very ladylike) snore.

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    1. Jacqueline:
      I was once on business in Eugene, Oregon, from San Francisco. We were at a restaurant waiting at the bar for our table. Our pager vibrated violently and we three Californians immediately ducked under the bar. All the Oregonians knew exactly what was going on and burst out laughing.

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  11. I'm glad to have left all that behind. I was in SF in '89.

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    1. Walt the Fourth:
      We were still in Connecticut for the '89 earthquake and were fortunate to never be right in the center of those that followed during our years in California, although we did experience a fe that sent us under our desks or standing in door frames. I was fine, really, except when we'd commute under San Francisco Bay on BART every day.

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  12. Ah, God's warning about gay marriage yet again! Just a taster of what's to come, no doubt.

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    1. Raybeard:
      Nope. I'm sure it's Goddess's warning about Donald Trump and Sarah Palin.

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  13. (Re your comment on my reply above)
    Now that really DOES make more sense, Mitch!

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  14. I have never been in an earthquake. There is a perverse part of me that would like to experience one.

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    1. Spo:
      It's fascinating to me, but then I've only felt them and have never suffered the consequences. The idea of a tornado, however, terrifies me.

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    2. I have never been in one either, but having grown up in the Midwest there have been a couple of close calls. They are nothing like in the Wizard of Oz.

      Delete

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