Winter Waning Moon of the Winter Solstice
Headlines you never expected to see:
Wind gusts topping 90 mph topple trees in L.A. area, blocking roads; snow closes I-15
Magnitude 3.8 Earthquake Rattles Indiana
Whoa. Earthquake. Indiana? What the… Here’s an example of today’s news coverage. My old buddy Ed Schmidt made a joke on his facebook page about an earthquake. Just to be sure I checked google. Sure enough:
“Officials from the U.S. Geological Survey said an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.2 has been registered in Indiana, just north of Indianapolis near the small (hmmm. where are their fact checkers?) town of Kokomo (46,000+).
(USGS earthquake epicenter map)
No damages or injuries were reported as a result of the quake that hit at 6:55 a.m. central time, officials said.
Some people in the Chicago area said they felt shaking from the earthquake, though it’s unclear if a 4.2 magnitude quake in Central Indiana could be felt as far west as Cook County…
The earthquake’s epicenter was about three miles beneath a farm field a short distance south of Pingree Grove, near Route 20 and Switzer Road in western Kane County.
That quake was caused by a previously unknown fault line that has not generated any shocks since geologists started keeping track 150 years ago.
In Indiana, Howard County Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Steve Rogers says the department was bombarded by phone calls after the quake from people wondering what had happened. He says some people reported hearing a loud boom.
Indiana University geologist Michael Hamburger told Indianapolis television station WTHR the quake was felt across Central Indiana and into western Ohio. He said the temblor occurred in an area “that’s seismically very quiet.”
The Indianapolis Star is reporting the quake was felt as far west as New Castle, Indiana, and that items shook off the shelf in Martinsville, located in northeast Indiana.”
Meanwhile, here there be ice. Out, out damned ice. Be gone. Snow we can deal with, but ice? Four-wheel drive’s no good, just slipping and sliding out of control. Skidding into the New Year may be some people’s idea of a good time, but not mine.
Kate and I had plans to go to the Spectacle shop today and spend year end money left over in our pre-tax medical account. Will have to wait till tomorrow. When we go, I plan to get some up to date reading glasses and a new pair of driving glasses with the graduated lens. Gonna stick with round lenses, not sure why but I’ve come to identify myself with them. My correction is sort of odd in that I can read without glasses since I have offsetting problems, but now when my eyes get tired or I read a lot of small type, blurring occurs. In the past, when that happened, I could put on my reading glasses to sharpen things up, but now they’re just enough off that they make things worse. An aging body is such fun.
We have a grand-dog in surgery today. Solly, Jon and Jen’s youngest dog, has some kind of digestive tract problem. He doesn’t eat and has become thinner and thinner. Hope he comes out of that ok.