The Reluctant Adventurer: Shaking and Blowing

Well, it's hard to believe that the second week of the school year is already over. Things around here have been very busy since my last post almost a month ago.

The first big event was the 5.8 EARTHQUAKE we had here in Central Virginia on Tuesday, August 23rd. Ian and I were having a quiet afternoon here at home. I was upstairs on the computer and he was downstairs watching PBS Kids. All of a sudden, there was a very loud rumbling that felt like it was coming from our basement. (Keep in mind I'd never felt an earthquake before!) My first thought, since we have natural gas coming into the house for our heating, was that the gas line was blowing up. I ran downstairs, grabbed the phone and Ian, and was starting out of the house while dialing 911 (another first) when it started to dawn on me what was going on. By then it was over, but I was pretty much a wreck the rest of the afternoon. Rob was still out in Hawaii visiting Ashby, so it was up to phone calls to my sisters and Facebook to calm me down! I mean really! An earthquake here? There were also 2 fairly strong aftershocks, one of which woke me up out of a sound sleep. One more reason not to live in California....

The front page the day after the earthquake

Rob did make it home in time, however, for our next big event which was Hurricane Irene. Although it was "just" a Tropical Storm by the time it came to Richmond, the damage was quite extensive around us. Fortunately our house was fine, but a tree fell across the road down the street and we were without power for six days. Naturally, it was the week before school started and I had job interviews and Ian and I both had dental appointments, doctor appointments, etc. But, we managed to get it all done. In fact, it was kind of nice to go to places with real lights and air-conditioning.

Ian handled the loss of electricity quite well, mainly because we turned the Trooper into a tv room by using our portable DVD player and the car adapter. Our friend Erin had power and she was kind enough to share with us so we didn't lose all of our freezer food. The generators around us roared, and the noise made it hard to sleep so when the power company showed up for repairs, we were all very happy! There are still signs of damage around us, but things are pretty much back to normal.