You coulda fooled me!

CHICAGO -- A brief earthquake struck the Midwest early Monday, rattling windows and awakening sleeping residents from Wisconsin south to Missouri and from Indiana west to Iowa.

No injuries were reported from the quake, which occurred about 1:11 a.m. CDT


I’ve had some insomnia lately. It appears to be a side effect of a new med for my hip. Last night I made the mistake of going to bed later than usual (watching Aqua Teen Hunger Force....that was not worth screwing up my bio-rythms for the week.) By track 18 of the 20 track Catholic Latin Classics CD I was finally lulled to sleep. On track 19 the dogs barking and baying at the neighbors who were engaged in some combination of partying and bickering awakend me. I did manage to get back to sleep rather quickly but was re-awakened about fifteen minutes later by a bunch of people yelling at the nearby apartment complex.

Back asleep again. Jolted awake by one of the complex citizens using an obscenity and the sacred name of Jesus in a new sick way. (If I had been more coherent I would have said something.) Dogs are going nuts with the choice of entertainments. The argument at the complex didn’t have the signs of violence that would justify calling the Sheriff’s department. Livining in an unincorporated area has the drawback of no access to law enforcement that is overwhelmingly impressed by a complaint of ‘noise.’ A call to the Sheriff at 1:00AM should involve imminent danger......and, to be honest, the only thing that was at peril was my sanity and beauty. The last big event was when a young man by the name of Kevin locked his signigicant other out of his vehicle. I fell back to sleep to a soothing chant of. “Let me in Kevin, you son-of-a-bitch.” If had the strength and lack of dignity I would have thrown open my window and yelled, “Don’t do it Kevin. She sounds like trouble to me.” So how should I notice an earthquake?

My sister was in an earthquake once. Not that the fact is so remarkable, except that it was back in her law school days in Vermont. The kind of place one doesn’t use Quake Wax to anchor all the tschotschkes. She felt it, though she wasn’t sure what was happening. In bed, after a long night of study plus a meeting with her ‘support group’ in the local pub on the green, she wasn’t quite sure what was shaking or why.