Small 'quakes are common here. There were 3 last week. Two of which could be felt in San Jose area. Brad and I barely felt one of those 2. It was a 5.0. My question is... that quake happened early Tuesday morning while waiting on the school bus... The *next* morning when we got out of bed the marble tiles in my 6 yo upstairs bedroom were buckled (popped up)... Do you suppose that was due to the small earthquake from the previous day? It seems strange that the floor was fine the entire day of the quake and the next day the floor tiles were popping up? I can't decide if it was a coincidence or if it was caused from that small of an earthquake? Anyway, his room is off limits and will be for awhile because they fix things are Tico time here. lol The water problem in the backyard took 2 months for someone to finally come fix and they still didnt fix it correctly. There is never a dull moment here. ;)

Even with all that, we are still very much enjoying it here and are learning a lot. So I don't want anyone to misunderstand and think I am complaining!

So would you say it is coincidence or it could have been from a small quake?

Thanks! I am headed out the door for church and will be back online later today.

By Karen~admin on Sunday, November 26, 2006 - 10:49 am:

Sounds to me like it would have been from the quake, but what do I know? I live in the swamps! LOL What do they say about it there??

By Tink on Sunday, November 26, 2006 - 11:34 am:

Speaking from a native California perspective, I'd say that it's from the earthquake. As the tiles settled or contracted during the night's cooler temperatures, it may have loosened them enough to cause them to pop up.

By Conni on Sunday, November 26, 2006 - 06:52 pm:

Thanks Tink! That's what I was wondering. Is this something that you have had happen? Do people who live in California have little things go wrong in their home after a small tremor often and you just deal with it? This is all so new to me!!! We have had so many little things go wrong with this house that I just wanted to see if that sounded possible it was from the quake...

LOL Karen! Actually, we discovered it the same morning we were trying to leave for a trip. So, we havent dealt with it yet. We returned home Saturday afternoon. I will call the land lord tomorrow...

By Tink on Sunday, November 26, 2006 - 07:12 pm:

We don't live too close to a fault line here so we don't get many tremors but after the big quakes, we've had damage from the aftershocks. Several years ago, we had a deck that looked fine after a large-ish quake but two days later, a section of the boards came loose from their nails and popped up because of the settling of their brace pieces.

By Conni on Saturday, December 2, 2006 - 07:55 am:

Tink, that is interested about your deck. I read your post several days ago and forgot to post back. sorry! Dh actually felt another tremor around midnight, one night last week. So he was pretty excited. lol We are so clueless about stuff like this. We can tell you all about tornados tho! They have those where we are from.

The landlady sent a guy out to pull up the floor tiles. He came with a hammer and 2 chisels. So, you can imagine what a long, very loud process that has been this week. Luckily, I have started going to spanish school 3 hours per day. I am able to escape the noise for a bit. lol After he got all the tiles up he had to start chiseling the grout chunks off the floor so there will be a clean surface to lay the new tiles. Interesting...I bet the poor guy has blisters on his hands and bruises on his knees.

I was talking to my Mom and she could hear how loud it was echoing thru the house and she asked why they didnt have a better tool for this. I then explained to her - the same reason they mow the fields around my house with mashetti's (no idea how to spell that) and weed eaters. They don't have brush hogs here I guess?? And it looks so tiring. Anyhoo, it's been fun to have the guy in the house because my 6yo LOVE's him. He tries to go in and help him sweep up the dust and chunks, etc... The guy takes him in the bathroom and they wash their hands together when they are done working. lol He only speaks spanish and I like that my son is talking with him and trying to use some spanish words. It's so cool.

Thanks for posting Tink! We really are pretty uneducated on the whole earthquake thing, having never lived somewhere that has them. It's interesting how many different things I am learning here.

By Tink on Saturday, December 2, 2006 - 12:04 pm:

It's no problem. I'm glad the floor is getting taken care of, even if it is slowly and loudly. How nice that the man working there is so accepting of your ds (is this Blake?). I love hearing about everything you are experiencing in Costa Rica!

I hope I never have to ask for your expertise on tornados. Other natural disasters scare the bejeebers out of me! Tornados, hurricanes, blizzards. I'll keep my earthquakes, thank you very much!

P.S. I can't believe they cut the fields with machetes! How long does that take???