I've never experienced an earthquake. Of course, the curious, newsman side of me wants to - at least to the point of having the actual experience but without the terror of it being 'the big one,' or of being injured in falling building debris.

The July 29 Los Angeles quake registered 5.4 on the revised Richter scale - a pretty good shake in an area that treats minor quakes as ho-hum, but that also has endured much bigger temblors that caused lots of damage, injury and death - like the 1989 Loma Prieta World Series quake that killed 63 people, or the 1994 Northridge quake that killed 61 and caused $15 billion in damage. Those were 6.9 and 6.7 on the Richter scale respectively - much more powerful.

My friend Patrick Bryant was in Los Angeles for production meetings on a new network television series (he's edited shows like Animal Planet, Emergency Vets and others for Rocket Pictures) when the quake hit on Tuesday.
I thought it would be interesting to get his impressions if he experienced it.
I called Patrick's cell, but cell phone service at first was spotty, and there were reports of widespread outages in L.A., and, oddly, a phenomenon where phones - I heard mostly land lines - were also ringing continuously.

It was Patrick's first quake and it hit as he was riding a bike on the Santa Monica Pier (this is west of L.A. proper and a good distance from the epicenter of the quake in the Chino Hills, south and east of the city) and he said he certainly felt it.

At first, he said, he thought something had gone wrong with his bike, but then he quickly recognized what that rolling motion meant.

"It really shook," he said, noting that minutes later, people along the pier area were back to business, walking and talking as if nothing had happened.
It left a more lasting impression on Patrick. He said something about no matter what you do in life, nature can come along and suddenly end it.

He promised to send over a quick e-mail about it later, if service was available.

I guess I'm envious of his experience, to be honest. If any of you have ever been through an earthquake (there have actually been a few in Colorado) why don't you write us about it.?

Just log onto YourHub.com and tell us what it was like for you.

After all, we know California will experience 'the big one' one day, and can look forward to many others not-so-big in the meantime.