Corfy's Corner My little corner of the web.

I said on Friday when I posted my quick blurb about the earthquake that I would write more "later."

Well, two days is "later", isn't it?

I got to work on Friday and was talking to a co-worker about a computer problem he was having when he said, "Maybe the earthquake caused the problem."

"What earthquake?" I asked.

"The earthquake this morning," he said. "It was supposed to have been a 5.4 or something. Didn't you feel it?"

I told him I hadn't. But as soon as I got away from him and back to my desk, I looked it up.

Sure enough, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.2 had hit the Indiana/Illinois border about 5:37 a.m. Indiana time, and I saw several reports of people in our area being woken up by the shaking, and other reports from people who were awake when it happened. And no, my co-worker wasn't wrong when he said it was a 5.4... it was originally reported as a 5.4, but then they downgraded it.

At 20 to 6 in the morning, I was sound asleep. I am a very sound sleeper, and it can take a lot to wake me up some days. Apparently, that was one of those days. Gayle later told me it woke her up, however.

From reports, the quake caused no injuries and only minor damage, so I didn't worry about it too much.

Then, about 11:15 a.m., I was sitting at my desk when I felt my chair shake a little and heard the ceiling tiles shift slightly. At first, I thought it was a semi driving past the building, but about the time I realized that semis don't drive that close to the office, and that this was an aftershock, the shaking had stopped.

A co-worker was walking past me. "Did you feel that aftershock?"

She started to say that she didn't feel the earthquake this morning, but she did hear it, when I interrupted her.

"Not this morning... just now as you were walking up."

No, she hadn't felt it, and thought I was making it up. And so did three other co-workers I asked. Just as I was about to chalk it up to my imagination, a co-worker from across the room walked over.

"Did anyone feel that aftershock?" she asked.

"I DID!" I said. Then I turned to a couple I just asked who didn't feel it, "See, I'm not completely crazy."

It turns out the aftershock was rated at 4.5. It only lasted a couple of seconds, but it was the first earthquake I remember experiencing.

Although we aren't that far away from the New Madrid Fault, Indiana isn't usually the first place most people think of when they think of earthquakes.

I chuckled at Jay Leno Friday night when he was talking about the earthquake.

"5.2? Around here we need a 5.2 to help rock us to sleep," he said.

I guess it is all relative. After all, 5.2 is the strongest earthquake to hit the midwest since a 5.4 hit in 1968.

Still, I will remember last Friday for a long time to come... the day I felt my first earthquake.