The Tempest, Aftershocks and the House on Stilts

It's really, technically not a tempest, per se.  There's no rain or snow.  There are however, intense and amazing wind gusts.  Continual bands of wind have been blowing all day today.  I just wanted to use the word "tempest" because, well, I just did.

I've written about aftershocks and phantom aftershocks, right?  Aftershocks we experience daily.  Some are big enough to shake whatever we're in, others we barely feel.  Phantom aftershocks are a real phenomenon where our body gets so used to shaking we trick our equilibrium into thinking/feeling there's another quake.  Evidently it has something to do with our ears--the whole equilibrium thing, that is.  So, over the past month I've been experiencing real aftershocks and phantom aftershocks and today, a tempest (minus the rain and snow) with real aftershocks.  That, last one, my dear people, is a pretty hefty combination.

Why?  Let me be specific.  The building we're in, where we eat, sleep and call "base" is built on stilts.  Now, the "stilts" are steel beams, of course, but there is no "first floor" and quite literally, we're perched on top of a parking lot.  All this to say, when real aftershocks hit, the whole building shakes. It's a sound building (or so I'm told) but good grief--this thing really shakes.  Add to this the gales of wind today which shakes the building all the more (and all day).  With all this movement today, phantom aftershocks are the last thing I'm thinking about today.  It's a pretty strange feeling to have the building in an almost perpetual state of movement either from an aftershock or the wind. 

And then there it was.  There was an aftershock that we all felt while the wind was whipping through.  A double-whammy like that means extra and longer swaying of the house-on-stilts.  It's unpleasant.  Walking around in the perpetually swaying building makes me feel just the slightest bit weak in the knees.  Not the whole I-see-my-husband-and-he-kisses-me weak in the knees bit.  I mean walking-on-solid-ground-after-being-out-at-sea-forever weak in the knees.  I'll take the former any day.  The latter, this particular feeling I can honestly do without.

I feel this all the more stronger perhaps because I'm laying down trying to recover from this now-a-full-blown-cold-and-flu thing.  Whatever the reasons, this has turned into a day like nothing else.  Not complaining, mind you.  It's just interesting to feel how much a building can sway when it's not on solid ground, when the wind is blowing every which direction and the aftershocks continue to rumble.  Note, the choice to use the word "interesting" is reminiscent of how my father used it when I was a child.  If someone was "interesting" or something tasted "interesting" it was generally okay to assume this was code for "not all that good."  As such, when I say it's "interesting" to be in a building that sways as much as this, you're welcome to assume and interpret this is not my favorite place to be right now.  This too shall pass.