Is it halftime, or are we having a quake?

Resslin' Around, by Casey Ressler

The first few seconds are always the weirdest, and last Sunday was no different.

"Um, I know Tracy's [my wife] truck isn't supposed to be rocking back and forth like that, but it is" was my first thought as I looked out the window Sunday during a commercial break of the football game.

And that's when I realized we were having an earthquake. For a few seconds, though, nothing seems right, but it doesn't necessarily feel wrong, either.

I realized the quake was big about 15 seconds into the roll, and looking back, I feel extremely shallow to admit my first thought after I realized what was going on was, "the electricity better not go out now, because this Oakland Raider/San Francisco 49'ers game is great."

Last Sunday's big shake had everybody talking, from Palmer to Pennsylvania. Relatives called from faraway places to make sure everybody was safe and sound. Thankfully, everybody was fine.

In the days following, though, the conversations are what makes the big quake so intriguing. It's almost like big earthquakes are like little fish -- they get bigger and bigger the more you talk about them, after the fact.

Yes, the quake was one of the largest in Alaska in a century, and yes, I know it tore the highway up and stopped the oil flowing down the pipeline. But by the way I've seen it portrayed in some national newscasts, you would have thought Alaska just broke off from North America and was floating somewhere out there in the Arctic Ocean, oil a-shootin' everywhere. And isn't that supposed to happen to California, not us?

A good friend of mine is a geologist in Anchorage, and you would have thought it was Christmas by the way he was talking about the quake.

At his office, they had seismological reports, aerial photographs and other very scientific things that I don't understand posted. He and his coworkers were giddy.

A newsroom's priorities must be a little different, I guess.

In our office the next day, we had the menu for Bagels Alaska Duct-taped to the door, and trust me, an "everything" bagel with cucumber dill cream cheese makes me feel even better than on Christmas morning.

You can't enter a conversation anymore without bringing the Big Shaker up. Just the other day, I was talking to an older couple who brought it up, and they asked me if I was in Alaska for the '64 quake. I politely explained that I was born 10 years after that big tremor, but I appreciated their story nonetheless.

While all earthquakes can be scary -- especially the big ones that keep shaking and shaking -- last Sunday's had a silver lining. It kept us talking about the earth, rather than the election which was two days away.

In my mind, moving rocks are a lot more interesting than politics, and sometimes, much more educational.

Casey Ressler (valleylife@frontiersman.com) is the Valley Life editor. His new theme song is going to be "Shake, Rattle and Roll."