BoomerGirl Diary

Isn't it funny how things happen sometimes?

A couple of weeks ago I commented to Ken’s 23 year old son who is visiting, “We haven’t an earthquake in awhile”. Well, about six hours later, mother nature fixed that. I really should learn not to speak EVERY thought in my head. Thankfully, the quake we had around 7:30 p.m., was one of the smaller ones I’ve experienced. It by far was the shortest lasting one, but it counts as one in my book.

I was sitting on our couch upstairs watching TV while Kaleb was in the “office” playing his X-box. I felt a little tremor, realized what it was, then waited to see what would happen. The mild vibration lasted a few seconds then ended in one good jolt. Nothing more. I went to see if Kaleb had felt it too or if maybe he had moved some furniture causing the sensation of an earthquake. He hadn’t caused it, but he had felt it. It was indeed a small quake. I found out two days later it registered a 4.1 and was centered about three hours north of Rocky Top. We’ve had other small ones over the past few years, but my first earthquake experience was the best one. So far.

It happened when we were staying in Costa Rica at a friend’s home during a Christmas holiday. We were still just “visiting” back then and had traveled down to start construction on our house. A buddy of Ken’s from Kansas was with us on that trip and he was also in our neighbor’s home.

It was after midnight, on Christmas Eve, that I awoke to the bed shaking. Once no longer in a dream state, I became aware of a horrible racket coming from the next room. Our friend’s home has two huge glass doors to his home and the glass plates rattling was what was making so much noise. Ken, thinking someone was banging on them to be let in, got up from bed and went to investigate. The lights that had been left on in the other room, suddenly went out. The alarm on the two-way radio began to blare when it lost its power source. Due to the different loud noises and being in now complete darkness, Ken and I were both a little confused.

He approached the shaking glass doors and peered out of them. He cupped his hands around his eyes that were up against the glass trying to see out into the darkness. He discovered that although the doors were indeed shaking violently, there was no culprit on the other side doing the shaking. At about the same time, we both realized what was happening and hollered out ....”EARTHQUAKE”!!!

Stunned and slightly panicked, I froze. I lay stiff atop the bed that was vibrating like those in cheap hotel rooms. I had no idea what was going to happen nor what I should be doing. By the time Ken made it back to the room, all motion had stopped. He then had to try to locate the noise making battery charger in the dark to silence it. He knocked over a few things on the desk where the radio was, but finally was able to turn off the loud beeping.

After things had settled down I tried to lighten the mood by stating how “Costa Rica Santa sure likes to make an entrance!” It took awhile to get back to sleep after that 1:30 a.m. Christmas Eve disturbance. I remember thinking how here I was, a gal from Kansas who is accustomed to running to the basement in bad weather, now dealing with a whole new type of potential natural disaster in the jungle. I had experienced another “first” in my life that would prove to be a regular part of my life in the tropics. It was harder to get back to sleep after that exciting experience than it ever was falling asleep awaiting Santa’s visit as a child. The next day Ken’s friend didn’t have a clue what we and others were excitedly talking about. HE had slept right through it all. Amazing.

The strongest earthquake we’ve had, happened just a month after we made our big move and were actually living in Costa Rica full time. Ken and I both woke at exactly the same time, 2:03 a.m. Again, the bed was shaking!!! This time we immediately knew why... EARTHQUAKE!!!

After a couple of seconds of just laying there and listening, Ken jumped out of bed and looked outdoors as he stood in the doorway. He was waiting to see if the hillside near our home was going to fall away or not. His worry was justified because he had parked his brand new truck right at the edge of it when he brought it home earlier that very day. While he stood next to the bed, I remained in it, staring up at the ceiling towards our HUGE wood beams. These heavy boards hold our house up and I wondered it they were about to crash down on top of me.

After what we estimated was a good 10+ seconds of tremors…it all suddenly stopped. My THIRD earthquake (Ken’s 4th). The next day we looked around for any signs of damage to our house and property but found none. We wondered where the epicenter was for the quake since it felt strong to us. The next day we were informed it was between Quepos and Dominical, about an hour and a half drive north of us. It had registered a 5 on the Richter scale!

The very next night I woke again to the bed vibrating. “Not another one!” I exclaimed as I turned to awaken Ken. Focusing in on him with my sleepy eyes, I realized it was not another tremor causing the shaking. It was Ken, who in his sleep, had a finger in his ear and was itching it violently. If you have not experienced an earthquake, try this: lay in bed and have someone up against you dig in their ear as if there was a nest of bees in it. Our earthquake felt similar. Keep in mind, that OUR bed is rather unstable AND we are on the 2nd level of a house that wasn’t built to earthquake “code”. Those things combined made the ear itching shaking more intense for us, I’m sure.

When folks down here find out where I am from, they almost ALWAYS say, and they all think they are the FIRST to say it, “You aren’t in Kansas any more, are you....DOROTHY?” Well, folks can’t be saying that to me anymore....three tornados have been reported in Costa Rica this past month alone!!! And here I thought I moved from Kansas to the tropics and put some distance between me and those twisters! What’s next? Dare I say...a tsunami? OH MY!

(Edited later to add: Just three days after I spoke the sentence above, Costa Rica was issued a tsunami watch (another first for me) after the horrible earth quakes in our southern friends' country of Peru. I really DO need to shut my mouth!!)

It's a Jungle Down Here.