Shake, Rattle, and Roll

Old news now, but we had the excitement of an earthquake yesterday. Centered in Mineral, Virginia, it rumbled through at about 1:50pm and measured 5.8 on the Richter scale.

I was at work, of course. My office location is about 80 miles northeast of the Mineral. Weirdly, at first we thought maybe a tornado was going through because the rafters in the open second story of our building were shaking. Then we felt it in our feet and legs. Before I recognized it as an earthquake, we were running to get out of the building - our thoughts were that the roof could cave in. But it turns out that we should have stayed inside, under our desks. I knew that, but it had been so long since I had experienced an earthquake like this one.

When I went back inside after a minute or so, I called Beau to see if he and the kids felt it. They had. He told me later that while he knew what to do because of his childhood in California, he was more scared and flummoxed about it because of his responsibility as Dad. He kind of forgot the training he had in his concern for the kids - Molly was napping upstairs and he had Jesse with him. He was torn about what to do with both of them being in two places.

In any case, a friend at work and I strategized what we would do in certain disaster events (tornado, earthquake, etc). And Beau and I discussed what we should do at home, too.

Now we prepare for the effects of hurricane Irene. Just lots of rain for us, fortunately. Praying for safety for my friends and family in the eye of that storm.