I got home from work early and sat in the living room chair, catching up on the paper (the Washington Post). I’ve been redoing the living room over the last month – throwing out the old Doxsey shelves from the Door Store, putting in new floor to ceiling shelves, so it was nice to sit in the open space, put my foot up on a cushion and open the paper. And when my cat Dolly jumped onto my legs a few moments later, it seemed the perfect time to put down the paper, close my eyes, and rest a bit before Emma got home.
Some time later I heard the furnace kick in, and then I heard a rumble starting up. Now, we are near a hospital, there are ‘copters flying in day and night, and we are close enough to Dulles Airport that we hear the air brakes kick in for some of the incoming flights … but this rumble was closer. I actually thought it was bearings in the furnace motor failing … the floor shuddered pretty good for 20 – 30 seconds … and then it faded away. 5 minutes later the phone rang, but I was pretty comfy and drifted back into that half-asleep state …
Emma got home 20 minutes later, and as we fixed dinner, she told me she’d felt the rumble a mile away at church. We figured it was an earthquake, and a few minutes later when I turned on the evening TV news, they confirmed it – a magnitude 4.5 quake near Richmond VA.
We didn’t even lose any of the glassware on our shelves – but between this and all the rain and winds we’ve had this year, it sure has been strange …

Both Sides In Same-Sex Marriage To Hold National Lobby Week”
by Doreen Brandt – 365Gay.com Newscenter Washington Bureau
Article Posted: September 25, 2003 12:01 a.m. ET
(Washington, D.C.) Organizations in favor and opposed to same sex marriage have earmarked the same week for national demonstrations to promote their views.
Southern Baptists, Jerry Falwell, Dr. James Dobson, Focus on the Family and other conservative churches and lobby groups announced Wednesday that they had earmarked October 12-18 ‘Marriage Protection Week’.

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Well – its Saturday evening and after OPM gave federal Employees (and thus, Contractors like me) 2 days off, we came through the storm remarkably well!
I spent 2 days clearing loose stuff from the yard, planting the remaining hanging baskets at the front door, packing up all the tools and loose parts on the back porch, freezing bottles of spring water, and in general, storm proofing as best I could. The TV news showed ever expanding storm pictures, scarey spiral clouds and vortices as seen from space, and we had gusty winds that were loud and made the trees move like wet spaghetti. ’round midnight Thursday, there was a bang, then a series of bangs as transformers sequentially blew all over the neighborhood – and we were in darkness. Friday we woke up and made coffee the old fashion way – boil a saucepan full of water, then pour it through the filter in the coffeemaker. Its slow, its tedious, but – a fine cuppa!
Anyway – we looked around and all of our trees were still standing! Lots of leaves and some branches on the ground, but the house was intact! Spent the day Friday raking leaves and hauling branches to the curb.
After Noon, Emma took the 2000 Civic Si and headed to Media, PA for a retreat she was leading … Storms may come and go, but Congregational Care is for every church!

Anyway – here’s why we lost power Thursday night …
they got it fixed 24 hours later!

Click to enlarge to 600×800 pixels size

August 1st, 2003 – Three years ago, Emma and I sat down and signed papers, closing the deal to purchase out house in Fairfax, Virginia. We were first time homebuyers, and, frankly, very glad to start building equity with a house instead of ‘paying money to the man’ in Rent. Much has happened since then, and we refinanced once in Feb 2002.
In June we contacted the mortgage company to request a better loan.
They waffled a bit, but we reminded them that getting a percentage of something is always better than taking a larger percentage of nothing …
Now, with the fallen interest rates, we will be sitting down at 5PM today, closing another set of refinance papers. Property values have risen so we can drop off the PMI fees, and we’ll save more due to an even better interest rate.
What a great way to celebrate the third year anniversary of our house!
All praise and thanks to god for these blessings!