Earthquakes & Hot Seats

Wow, this has been a strange day. I was awake this morning at about 5:40. I had just gotten back into bed after hitting the snooze button (I can't help myself, ok?) when I heard this horrible noise that sounded like a huge dog was running through the house. Then my bed began to move - I had the funniest thoughts running through my head. What was going on? Did a big animal just jump onto my bed? That sounded like the wind but there's no wind blowing...it was an earthquake. I've actually experienced an earthquake once before. It was 20 years ago & all three of us kids were sitting in the back seat of the old Maverick. Andy was 15, Beth was 12, & I was 10. We were sitting at a red light when the shaking hit & Dad accused us of not being still in the backseat. Us kids were like, whatever - we didn't move the car. Then we heard about the earthquake on the news. Such a strange feeling to be moved around like that. I've also been a bit worried b/c I did not choose earthquake insurance on my home owner's policy. Now I wonder, was that a mistake???
And the hot seats. Each day here at the nuclear pharmacy we go through the restricted area doing what we call 'wipe & survey' tests. The wipe test consists of just wiping a piece of paper towel over surfaces & then putting the wipe in a machine that tests to see if radioactivity is present. The survey test is just moving a Geiger counter over different surfaces to see if there is radioactivity present. Basically we have to check for contamination daily. On Friday we test our vehicles & the unrestricted areas as well. I got that job this morning & I was buzzing through the "swipes & slurveys" (that's what I like to call them) when I discovered that two chairs in our break room were reading a little bit hot. Hmmm...I had actually sat in one of them a little bit earlier. So I told my boss & we did a couple more surveys & wipes & pinpointed a little more clearly where the contamination was. I want to assure you that it was nothing major. Just a little hotness. So then we all lined up at the survey meter to check out our hineys. There's nothing like waving a Geiger counter over your posterior end! The real mystery is that no one had hot pants, shoes, or hands. We haven't been able to tell how the activity was transferred. Very interesting. Don't I have a fascinating job?
My house closing is in less than an hour...anybody else out there as excited as me? I have never written a check for such a huge amount in my entire life - & I kinda hope I never do it again! Stay tuned for more...