EARTHQUAKE!

You may, or may not have heard about the earthquake in "southern" Illinois that was felt as far up as Wisconsin and Michigan and happened around 4:40 A.M. yesterday. (If you haven't, you should be able to find an article on it fairly easily.) Here is my story...

I was sleeping, as I always try to do at night. Once I get to sleep, it is awfully hard to wake me at any time, for any reason. Anyway, I woke up. Now, I don't know if the earthquake itself woke me up, or if it was Peter that did. (Peter is my pet parakeet, in case you didn't recognize his name.) He is normally pretty quiet and still (during the night, that is). Yesterday morning, though, he was flying, or fluttering, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth from one side to the other of his cage. I couldn't figure out what must be wrong with him and was disturbed enough that I almost got out of bed to go and see if I could find out what was wrong. Then he stopped. He made enough noise that I knew he was still alive and now calmed down. I looked at my clock to see how much "night" was left, and then went back to sleep, but I just couldn't seem to figure it out.

Yesterday Valerie and I asked each other, "Were you awake early this morning when Peter was going crazy, flying back and forth?". We both were. She asked me if I knew what time it was. "Well, according to the average clock it would have been...(My alarm clock is 15 minutes fast, so 4:55 - 15=4:40.)...4:40 A.M." "Did you hear about the earthquake this morning at about that time?" "Earthquake? Where?" "Here. Well, it was actually in 'southern' Illinois, but it was felt all the way up to Milwaukee." "That's ridiculous! I thought they only happened in places like California!" "This one was right here in Illinois - I was listening to news about it on the radio. One lady said her bird was doing what we heard Peter doing. Somebody said that birds can sense them - sometimes even before they happen." "I think that is what it was, then, that bothered him, but I had absolutely no idea that there was an earthquake going on. Actually, if I had felt it (which I didn't), I don't think I was awake enough to have put two and two together that the washing machine (which does sometimes vibrate my bed) wouldn't normally be running at a quarter to five in the morning!"

So, there you have it---my earthquake story! Birds are very sensitive little creatures and I am glad to have figured out the mystery!