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 …