Magical Light

I was up a bit earlier than usual a few mornings ago and was delighted to find dew all over the horse tail grass (but not much of anything else =/) I didn't have much time to shoot, but I ended up with this shot that I really enjoyed.

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Last evening, there was an earthquake that occurred in the Aleutian Chain. You may have heard about it, the tsunami warning that followed, and then the cancellation of the warning.

We were never in danger here, and were only under and informational posting, not even a "tsunami watch". All the networks (CNN, ADN, etc) all posted around the same time that the official website cancelled the advisory. Less than 5 minutes later, I heard something outside and opened the door. Our tsunami warning system was blaring, saying we were under warning, and to evacuate.

Facebook became aflutter with confusion, and it sounds like the poor tourists panicked a bit getting to somewhere higher in elevation. Then the borough ended up calling some folks and letting them know it was a fluke, basically.

Apparently, the warning system is supposed to go off if there is a warning anywhere in the state. Unfortunately, this is incredibly impractical considering how large Alaska's coastline is. This occurred also right after the Japan earthquake in March, as well. It just wasn't as huge of a deal because there were no tourists and it was the middle of the night. We were needlessly warned of a cancelled threat. The boy crying wolf comes to mind, for sure. The system is great, but it is doing more harm than good right now.

Thoughts on the Japan Earthquake

Every time there is a sizable earthquake anywhere in the world, my heart stops for a second when I hear of it. The risk of it happening here seems to grow ever stronger with each quake elsewhere.

I'm sure that if I was ever caught in a flood, or a hurricane, or a tornado, I would panic. Those are dangers that I have no concept of, not really anyway. I have never been anywhere where that was a risk. Earthquakes are second nature to me, or at least I like to think so, but I think they are definitely one of the scarier disasters due to the sheer lack of control and warning there is.

There is a small part of me that has a sick tendency to be proud of the amount and strength of our Alaskan earthquakes. So what? A natural disaster is not something to be proud of!

I have pondered the best time for a huge earthquake here. The wintertime would be awful. Cold weather when heating systems and electricity may not work, as well the potential for people trapped under rubble is not a good combination. But in the summertime, there is such a huge influx of visitors to the state that that would be horrible as well. There is no ideal time for a disaster.

Last night, I wanted to go out and shoot the aurora from the beach. As soon as I saw news of the quake, it took precedence. I spent the next 4 hours pouring over charts, Twitter, and reading the same news pieces over and over again. I dug out my radio to listen for updates. The tsunami warning system went off at midnight. Even though a potential tsunami had hours before it reached my town, I still was not willing to risk it. I went to bed with a heavy heart for those hurting, concerned about friends and acquaintances in Japan, Hawaii, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

I slept poorly, waking up, subconsciously afraid of my house flooding, and woke up in the morning chiding myself for my worrying. The danger passed us by, as it usually does.

It was hard not to despair last night, thinking of how easily the entire planet can be shaken by these plates. But it is out of my control (of course!) and I have to give my fear over to God, otherwise I will be paralyzed by it. That's the only way to live.

I went to the beach this afternoon, at a friend's insistence. I was not eager to go, but the waves were calm and the tide was out. It's pointless to live paralyzed by "what ifs" when they may never materialize. I feel confident that we have enough food stored in the house that we could survive if we needed. But according to this emergency list, I am lacking a few things. This could lead into a discussion on politics, the collapse of the US dollar and/or economic system and other disaster preparedness, but I think I will try to prepare for what I can, and leave the rest up to tomorrow.

Tiny Earthquake

On Wednesday, there was an earthquake here, that I doubt many people felt. I was sitting here, at my desk, when I felt this extremely gentle rocking. I asked C if he could feel it and he denied it. I wasn't even sure it was happening until I saw a couple things shaking a bit. Sure enough, it was a 4.5, but it was far away.

May Quake

Was rudely shaken awake by an earthquake Monday morning at 4am. I groggily realized we were having a rather violent quake (only 4.7) but with a sudden jolt, it was finished. I vaguely thought to look it up in the morning and subsequently blog about it.

A few hours later, after waking up, I logged onto Facebook and saw several updates about it. I realized after a few minutes that yes, there had been a quake that morning. It turns out there was a 3.7 one a couple hours later that morning, as well. I also learned there had been two 4.0 quakes the two mornings before.

The whispers are that people hope the ground is letting off steam and not building up to a big one. We all know the big one is coming again, but later rather than sooner, please! Though one comment I heard explained there were a ton of smaller quakes leading up to '64 quake....

April Quake

To add to all the earthquakes happening around the world right now, we had a 3.9 one on Thursday afternoon. Our neighbor had just shut his door so the whole house shook, and less than 2 seconds later, the house shook a different way! It was pretty fast. I watched one of my plants shake rather violently for a bit!

I tweeted about the quake and one of my online acquaintances was like "Seriously? You had an earthquake? Are you okay?" Which is not an abnormal response. But, then he talked to me on skype later and asked "Did you really have an earthquake?!"

Yes! How hard is that to understand! We have several a day. You have thunder and lightning, we have earthquakes! Poor analogy, I know, but it's just so common here.

Another Quake

We were awakened to a 4.9 quake this morning. After it was finished, I lay in bed pondering the "Big One" we are supposed to have in the near future. I really hope that God holds it back until summertime! It would be awful to have a terrible quake in the dead of winter, like now.

Good grief. I was reading about the 1964 quake we had and just read this:

"Since the entire Earth vibrated as a result of the quake, minor effects were felt worldwide: several fishing boats were sunk in Louisiana and water sloshed in wells in Africa."

My word!

Quake

I've been on edge ever since Tuesday after hearing about the Haiti quake. We have been having minor earthquakes quite frequently as of late (or maybe I'm now really paying attention.)

Tonight, we had a 3.5 one 30 miles from here. It gave us a good jolt for a couple seconds and then was over. I might be used to earthquakes, but they still rattle me sometimes.

Another Quake

Just had a second earthquake from this week. It was shaking the house softly. I waited for it to be a bit more rough, but it wasn't. 77 miles from here and magnitude 5.16 at this point.

EDIT: 5.4

Earthquake

This morning I woke up to the bed shaking, figured it was an earthquake and went to sleep again. I was right. A 3.9 one 62 miles away! I haven't felt one in a while.

August Quake

Had a 4.95 earthquake yesterday. I barely felt it, but could see the things in the house swaying. I was waiting for it to get more intense, but it didn't.

Work Incidents

Had a good 4.6 shaker today at work. Was a bit nervewracking for a few seconds.

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Work occurences today:
- Older gentleman told me at the end of his transaction, "Make sure you go to church on Sunday!" Um...I was planning on it...

- A lady that was a bit strange "What's the difference between the bare caramels and the chocolate caramels?" "Chocolate caramels are dipped in chocolate and the bare caramels are just caramel..." She was still confused. A few minutes later, she was lamenting the price of our soda and asked "Do you have cheaper soda somewhere else in here?" Why would we sell the same soda at a cheaper price somewhere else in the store?

- A man got 5 quarter pounds of different fudges...all the strange, distinctive flavors (pistachio, peanut butter, etc) and wanted us to label them so he would know what they were. Is it that hard to distinguish pistachio from Almond Joy?

- Lastly, an ornery and pushy man came to my boss and I wanting to know why two different shirts that were both made by Hanes were different quality. (Different companies buy different versions from Hanes. Some have more weight, better quality, etc.) The man was appalled and could not wrap his head around that fact. He also wanted his desired shirt design in the heavier shirt material and was yet again appalled that it was not possible.
The same man wanted to know where to take photos of the eagles. I told him, and he ranted that he hadn't seen any at all. I explained that this is not the time of year when they congregate. He then was confused why they weren't in town where the "trees" are rather than why they are on the beach. "The fish? That's where the food is." He couldn't seem to grasp that concept either.

There were several other incidents from today, but they would take too long to explain. Definitely a trying day :)

2nd June quake

Had another quake 10 minutes ago. This one was 40 miles from here, 3.4, and was so fast, C and I weren't sure it was a quake. But it was!

June Quake

Had a 4.12 magnitude quake at 10:30 this morning. It was over with before I really became concerned. I totally missed out on any May ones (shucks).

C and I are spending time together today. It's been nice :) Tomorrow we're going to a movie, and today we rented a Star Trek movie (First Contact) to watch tonight. Should be fun!

Quake 2 of April

C and I were packing our things and he had been jumping around a bit, but had stopped, when I noticed our bookcase was moving. I kept staring at it, and was about to comment on it when the wall started shaking violently. We were near our bedroom doorway anyway, so I hugged the wall for a few seconds. It was a good shaker, 4.8 and pretty close to us (of course)

Makes me glad I'm leaving the state for a bit! Except I'm heading to California after that...not exactly any better!

First April Quake

I'm starting to get concerned at all these earthquakes we have been having lately. We just had a 4.5/4.69 quake 20 minutes ago. It's not that we are having so many quakes, because we have tons every day...just the fact that I have been feeling so many of them. The @Alaskans Twitter account has been full of earthquake reports already.

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Yesterday I hung out with my friend Lin for a few hours. She is housesitting 2 streets over from us, so we are going to get together a bit more now.

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It's a nice day today and I don't have much homework due today, so C and I are likely going to the beach! I taught him how to use my new camera a bit, and he was intrigued. I'm hoping that he will have fun playing with it.

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In the mail yesterday, I got a random flier from "Disney Theatrical Productions" which turned out to be from my credit card company. The Lion King is coming to Anchorage! When I went to DC and NYC in 8th grade, my group went to see the Lion King on Broadway, and let me tell you...it was amazing. It is showing from September 2 through October 11 if anyone is interested. I'm intrigued, but not sure that C is. Just though I'd throw that out there!

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The ash has melted a ton of snow, and turned the ground to mud. It is obnoxious. It's hard not to track in big globs of mud. And it just looks gross! But, it looks more "Spring-y" out there now, and warm! I can't wait for the end of April!!

Another quake again

My goodness, we just had another earthquake. It was 4.3 right nearby, and from the looks of it, it was right out in the Inlet, near Augustine. Redoubt was down to Yellow, but shot back to Orange yesterday....hard to say, it might still go off soon.

Another quake

We had another earthquake today. Not sure how many people even noticed it. I was sitting on the couch doing homework when the apartment shook for like 5 seconds. It was really light, but disarming after the one a month ago.

After I was sure the quake was over, I looked out the window to see a moose in the yard. I took some photos, but he was turned away from me, so they aren't great. He left soon after, as well.

The weather has been fantastic the past two days..or rather, very sunny. And of course...I haven't been able to be outside. I had to work yesterday, and then today, I was under an insane amount of pressure to get an exam done by 6pm. It was a "48 hour" exam that was handed out on Friday. The most inconvenient time for something like that is the weekend for me, but I got it done.

Potentially, C and I are getting up extra early in the morning and going to watch the eagles being fed before C goes to work. We need to talk about it again and plan if we really will, but it would be fun as I have never gone out there to watch before.

Tis all for now!

Ready to go home

I am so ready to be back home!

Friday night, went to see Dannah Gresh. It was a really amazing time. She was a fabulous speaker and made a good impact on everyone there. 

Came to the in laws afterwards and am sick of being here. It's very chaotic most of the time, with lots of extra kids around. Not so right now, thankfulluy. C and I have to stay here until his parents come home. Which is supposed to be after 10.  

Saturday, I woke up and was eating breakfast when we had another earthquake. It shook pretty good and then it got a whole lot harder. I actually thought we might be having the "big one" because it kept going and getting harder. The shaking lasted quite a while. My boss called soon after to see if I could go into work early to make sure nothing had broken. Nothing had, and only a box of candy fell off a shelf, which is amazing. It measured 5.7, but was only 50 miles from us. I guess it made national news, which doesn't usually happen. It wasn't THAT big of a deal. Everyone in town was talking about it, of course. I didn't think about our apartment though. I went home today and it had been hit hard. I'm glad I wasn't there. C's computer desk hutch is not attached to the desk itself, so it had slid off his desk an inch so one side was sloped against the wall, treacherously. And several picture frames fell off a bookcase. One broke that I saw so far. All the pictures on the wall were crooked. Some things from my dresser in the bedroom fell down. That's all that I noticed, but it's the worst that I've heard about so far. 

Left work at 2 for a baby shower. It was fun. Nothing too noteworthy to note, it was just fun and enjoyable. 

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. I felt bad that I didn't get to spend time with her then, but she did come to the Dannah Gresh thing and I got to hang out with her today. Happy birthday again, Mom!

Today the church had a chili cook off, and there were 14 different kinds of chili there. I tried 2 kinds. Definitely liked one more than the other. I stuck with the mild :P

Ran into my favorite professor at the store. I haven't seen him since college graduation last May. It was good to give him and update and see what he's up to.

Then I went home with my groceries and found that our landlord had put in our new washing machine! I don't think I mentioned it, but our washer was making an awful racket when spinning. It sounded very violent and was getting worse. Our landlord figured out what the problem was and decided it would be better to buy a whole new machine. And then it came yesterday, and they called us twice to let us know that he was going to install it, but of course we weren't there. When I got there today I saw the new machine and called them right away. So that's exciting!

Mom called me with bad news today. One of my California cousins, I think he's 17 or 18, was in a car accident last night. He was with 3 others and he was the most badly hurt. They medevaced him to a University hospital. He fractured his femur, did something to his elbow, and had head injuries. I'm not really sure what else. I can't remember the details really. But he's in bad shape. If you all could please please pray for my cousin Sam, and my whole family, that would be awesome. I really appreciate it.

So now we're just waiting a few more hours until we can go home!!!

Earthquakes

C and I got awaken rather rudely this morning to the apartment shaking violently. At 5:17am, to be exact. The earthquake didn't last long, and was only 3.11, but shook us pretty good. However the earthquake site says there was a bigger quake this morning at 3:35 at 4.68. It was a good 400 or 500 miles farther away, but still.

Last week at work I read a book about the '64 Earthquake. Didn't do much to calm my paranoia after this morning!