So that Wasn't the Upstairs Neighbor Dropping Crates

Just after 10 AM today, the building creaked just a little bit and I felt a short, sharp jolt. I though someone had slammed a door hard upstairs, but then I thought it might be an earthquake and braced for further action. None was needed, and no harm was done. I checked the local USGS earthquake map and indeed, there was a magnitude 3.1 earthquake centered a few miles from where I live. There was apparently a small aftershock in the same place five minutes later, but too small to feel here.

3.1 isn't much of an earthquake -- I've been relatively close to four 6-plus quakes in my life -- so it's a sign of how close it was to here that I felt it at all.

Eyestrain City

My current eyeglasses prescription is nearing expiration. As I've mentioned, I have an exam on Thursday that I expect will generate a new prescription, and not too long thereafter, I'll probably have new glasses. But this past week of longer-than-usual hours staring at the computer for long periods of time has generated a continuous eyestrain ache. In particular, looking to the upper left hurts quite a bit. This is unpleasant, and I hope it goes away soon. In the meantime, I'm trying to not spend all my time looking at the computer.

Today I had to go down to Sunnyvale and collect a couple of parcels that were sent to the PO Box. I maintain that address as a sort of spam-trap and also as a place to where I have most of my convention memberships going, but I only collect the mail there once a week, and that's usually after a BASFA meeting. I ask people not to send parcels there (as does cherylmorgan), because the only time I can go to the Sunnyvale PO when it is open is on Saturday, when there is usually a worse-than-usual line. Today, even with every window open, it took something like 20-30 minutes before it was my turn. The result: books for Emerald City, including -- ghod only knows why -- a second review copy of a book that had already gone to the apartment, from the same publisher. Sigh.

On the way home, I stopped and had a largish lunch. Feeling that I'd over-indulged and needed to work that off (and burn blood sugar), I set off for a walk around Quarry Lakes Park. The weather here was pretty nice; a little cool and breezy, but sunny. The exercise worked, perhaps a bit too well -- a reading of 86. I had a snack when I got home, even though I didn't feel hungry, because it seemed to me that this reading was perhaps a bit lower than optimal. The idea is not keep blood sugar levels fairly constant, not yo-yoing up and down a lot.

Another reason for going out for a walk was that it kept my eyes focusing on far-away things, not a computer screen. And speaking of which, perhaps I should get away from this computer again for a while.