I wake up pretty early. After all, I'm at work at 6:15 a.m. Anyway, I live in an old-ish house and it's settled a bit here and there. There's a few weak spots in the floor where it will shake a little when someone walks heavily by. So, I was up this morning, bright and early, and was walking across one of the "weak spots" and a large cabinet next to me rattled a bit. Not unusual, but it was early and I didn't want to make too much noise so I put my hand on it to quiet the thing down. I stopped walking, my hand was on the cabinet door and it kept rattling and vibrating. The whole floor was vibrating. I thought maybe someone else had gotten up and was stomping around at the other end of the house but when I looked down the hall, all the lights were off and everyone was still asleep. Hmmm...

Cut to one hour later at work:

My coworker said, "Did you feel it?" I looked at her, fully understanding what she meant, but I had to hear it. "Feel what?" I asked. "The earthquake at 5:39 this morning. It was a 5.4."

Yep. Earthquakes happen in Indiana all the time. We are surrounded by some huge faults. This one was centered near West Salem, Illinois.

So. I wasn't imagining things. The earth really did move under my feet for a few seconds.

It was really cool.

...and that's the Bottom Line.