thank you! I just wanted to make sure nothing bad was happening!

It is normal. We had some ddos attacks(mass attack to destroy pmc) and the rate limits are to assure that nothing bad happens. Everyone experiences it, just appreciate the little break :) - make a nice tea, pet your animals

Going fast through the site might trigger it, it isn't a bad thing -it is just security, assuring you are not harmful

I've had this happen a few times, it only happens to me when I refresh too many times. Not sure if it's tied to your level (i.e. higher level members have a higher limit), but in any case you can just wait a little bit.