Quake Update

Thanks to Dave, it's now confirmed that there was a 3.8 magnitude quake about 20 miles from where I am (Weaverville). Apparently there are a lot of people more on top of things than me, because nearly 2000 people had posted reports about this quake to the USGS site before I posted mine (and I wouldn't even have done it then if Dave hadn't sent me the link).

My specific recollections: as I said I was watching the Daily Show when the house started shaking, about to the same degree it might if a freight train were running through the back yard. There was a booming then rumbling sound sort of like distant thunder. The windows rattled. The whole thing lasted maybe 5 seconds, no more. My mother was working on the computer and said "what the hell was that?" I said "An earthquake."

All in all a very cool. I wouldn't want to be in a big one.

This was the second bit of excitement for the evening. Coming back from Chapel Hill, on the way down Ox Creek Road from the Blue Ridge Parkway about half a mile from the house we saw a bear.