Earthquakes and Scorpions? Again?
Yesterday, Rae and I were sitting on the living room floor playing Jenga. It turns out that Jenga was quite the appropriate game, because a few minutes after we finished playing the whole apartment started shaking back and forth. It reminded me of how the floor sometimes shakes during a washing machine’s spin cycle, except this was about ten times more powerful.
It took me a few seconds to realize that it was an earthquake. The whole thing lasted maybe 15-20 seconds, but that’s plenty of time to think about important things like, “What the hell are you supposed to do in an earthquake?”
I remembered immediately that biggest danger is getting flattened by falling debris. That’s why I very slowly, very carefully, lowered the bookcases on top of Rae before they accidentally came crashing down on her. In hindsight, I probably should have taken the books off first, but there wasn’t really time.
It was our third earthquake/tremor since we’ve been here. (The first one actually happened the same day as the earthquake that wiped out Japan in March. Now that’s a big aftershock.)
I read in the paper today that yesterday’s earthquake registered a 6.0 on the Richter scale. That’s just strong enough to be exciting but not strong enough to kill me (just like my women.)
It was actually very exciting. It was by far the largest earthquake I’ve ever felt. But as Pam and I were talking about how thrilling it was living life on the edge in the middle of some mountain jungle that’s prone to earthquakes, I happened to look over at our kitchen table. Sitting on top of it, in perfect condition, was Rae’s house of cards she had built earlier in the day.
So maybe 6.0 isn’t so big after all.
Later that night, it was just our typical evening. Make dinner, play some games, put our pajamas, crush all the scorpions we find in Rae’s room.
The scorpion infestation kicked into high gear this week. We found three or four baby scorpions crawling around the place. To be honest, I’m starting to lose track of them all. I think our total body count for the trip is somewhere around 14 or 15.
The novelty was starting to wear off, but that was before we discovered a new scorpion trick that has kept amused lately.
Scorpions glow under a black light!
9 Responses to “Earthquakes and Scorpions? Again?”
Yikes! As a California girl earthquakes don’t really rattle me (heh) but scorpions are gnarly! I’ve never tangled with one & hope to keep it that way! Blacklight trick Very cool though (maybe you can win some. Bar bets with that one)!!! Take care! Nisha says, ” I miss Rae”! :-)
Come on, they glow in the dark! How cool is that?
And it’s not all scorpions down here. For instance, Rae’s class is taking a field trip today to the local bat jungle. Bats don’t glow in the dark, but some of them can grow to be…wait for it…two meters wide!
Not too shabby.
Nick, isn’t Craig sexy when he does “science” talk? I think you have now officially said two of the funniest things I have ever heard in my life. The first, about lowering the bookcase onto Rae. The second, about the “6” being exciting but not deadly, as it pertains both to earthquakes and women. As for the scorpions, they should only be mentioned in the context that the musical group is taking its last world tour in 2012 and I will be there. Rocking myself like a hurricane. Any other mention of scorpions is simply disgusting and needs to stop. I still contend that Pam owes you big for putting you through six months of what is ostensibly my personal idea of Hell. But it takes all types.
Craig, keep it up and I’ll send my legions of idiots over to your dork blog to spam the hell out of it. (Actually, Jeff might know what the hell all that crap you just said means. He’s a Carnegie Mellon super-dork.)
Jeff, just wait until Halloween. Wait until Halloween…
You should definitely paint your face with glow in the dark scorpion guts
Nick, PastaInTheMountains was not cracking jokes and taunting you … so far as you know.
Nick, where’s the code sample for the algorithm Rae used to build her stack of cards? Did she get caught by the ORM entity issue? Just remind her that the orderby property needs to a column in the associated table, NOT in the primary table. Just wanted to make sure that was clear for her.
Erin, thanks for the gentle reminder.
Pasta K, I feel as though you are cracking jokes and taunting me.
Normally I would crack jokes and taunt you but an earthquake, wow. Glad you guys are OK. ;)
Oh my gosh! I think there was a grammatical error in that post!