A First for Everything

I am sure that every blogger on the coast is blogging about the same thing today...

Earthquakes and Hurricanes.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

I was grading math assignments when I thought I heard a large airplane in the distance. I noticed because its very rare to hear an airplane in my neck of the piney woods. The sound grew louder... and somehow, if sound can have feeling, the growing rumble felt oppressive, foreboding. I looked at the dog, who on most days is afraid of her shadow. She was not bothered at all.

Then the cupboards started to rattle and I could feel vibrations through the floor.

I ran to the stairs to find out what in the world those kids were doing that would cause such commotion. Did they have music on that would make all that noise and racket?

By the time I reached the bottom of the stairs they were making their way down.

"Mom, the whole up-stairs is shaking!"

And I knew. I knew something was amiss.

The shaking stopped. Lasted less than a minute...

Its amazing the thoughts you can think in less than a minute.

I'm ashamed to say my first thought was sinister... thoughts of explosions and terror came to my mind. Something, someone was under attack...

The minute is was over, I felt shaken, and began to doubt.  I wondered if I had made it up. Maybe somehow my imagination had conjured something that wasn't quite real. I quickly got on Facebook (after-all thats the first place you should run when you fear you are losing your mind) to see if any of my neighbors had felt it too.

Immediately my friend Heather replied and said she had felt it too.  I felt so relieved. I wasn't crazy! (at least not today.) But I was shocked. Heather is a neighbor in heart, but she lives 25 miles away. Certainly whatever had happened was big. Honestly, I thought it might have been an earthquake, but I figured it highly unlikely. We don't have earthquakes in the East.

But it was.

My first earthquake... in the state of North Carolina.  May it be the last!

Our state was not preparing for an earthquake, but for a hurricane named Irene. Thankfully, us inland peeps should only get some rain and maybe some wind (at least as projected today), but I am making sure we are prepared. I'm making whole-wheat bread today. I bought extra coffee last week. We have three 10-gallon water bottles and enough toilet paper to get us through until next Christmas.

Its all about essentials, my friends.

Talk to me: Where were you during yesterdays earthquake?

You don't live on the East Coast? Well, if you were preparing for a hurricane, what one item would be in your survival kit?