Earthquake!

If any of you have been paying attention to the news lately, maybe you have seen a small article hidden behind the more important headlines mentioning our most recent significant earthquake.  I say "significant", but we are ALWAYS having earthquakes, it's just that most of them are so small we don't feel them.  But every now and then we get one that we do notice in a significant way.  It's funny how we always have it in the back of our minds that we could have an earthquake at any time, yet when it comes, it always catches us off guard.  Kinda sounds like the 2nd Coming, don't it?

To me, earthquakes are a thrilling part of living here.  I mean that in both ways.  Thrilling in a "scary" sense of suspense, and also thrilling in an exciting kind of way.  Like hanging on the edge of your seat, biting your nails kind of thrilling, and when it's over you say, "that was awesome!"  (like riding on a "scary" loopy roller coaster) Although earthquakes can make me tense up with suspense, I have gotten used to them enough to not be frantically scared out of my wits.  I would gladly take an earthquake over a big ol' hairy spider any day.

Anyhoo, this time it caught us off guard because it came at 1:30 in the morning when we were sleeping.  The weird thing was that I could feel it coming before it hit.  I must've been half asleep cuz I swear I could feel a subtle vibration.  But at the same time, my cat was on the floor and I could hear her scratching, like she was itching herself.  And I remember laying there thinking that it was weird that her scratching would be causing the whole room to vibrate.  But I was half asleep, so it was hard for me to separate reality from dreaming.  And now I'm wondering if my cat was actually scratching on the floor cuz she could feel it coming too??

Then all of a sudden it hit.  The house started "jumping around" and rocking and swaying, and it seemed like it was lasting a long long time.  I sat up in bed and watched the ceiling fan violently rocking back and forth, and waited for it to fall off and land on top of us. Thankfully, it did not fall.  I could hear all the clutter in my room shaking and finally I heard something fall off a shelf. This was the first time for me that an earthquake ever actually knocked anything off a shelf. (It's a good thing I wasn't watching any kind of scary paranormal movie before I went to bed cuz that was almost what it was like.) I wasn't frantically scared, but I did have a tight grip on Chuck's arm.  He just laid there and said, "You can't do anything about it."  I have to say, in all my years living here, I've experienced some real rockers before, but I think this one was the worst one I've ever felt.

When it finally decided to die down, it still took a few moments for all of the vibrations to go away.  Finally everything was calm, and we went back to sleep.  Apparently, there was a 4.something aftershock a few hours later, but we slept through it.

According to the website "Recent Alaska Earthquakes", it measured 6.79 on the Richter scale, but the newspaper said it was 7.1.  (take your pick)  The epicenter was about 165 miles away from us and 76 miles deep.  Wow.  Just think of all that energy. I guess some people all the way up in Fairbanks felt it too, but for them it was only a small rumble.  (Steph didn't feel it.)

With all of the rattling and rumblings going on, I thought I would wake up in the morning to all kinds of messes on the floor to clean up.  But this was all the evidence that I had of the earthquake:

Some plastic flowers fell into the bathroom sink:

1. My antique plate and a little knick knack fell on the floor:

This old antique clock began ticking again:

And some of my scrapbooking ribbons took a flying leap:

That was about it.  Thankfully no damage. So, in case you were thinking about us when you heard about the earthquake, now you know that we survived and thankfully the results of it were humdrum, at least at my house.  Unfortunately, for some people who live down in the Peninsula, they were a lot closer to the epicenter, so there were some homes destroyed and some gas lines broke.

Now for a few other boring subjects going on behind the scenes:

I thought you might be interested in seeing my burnt snowman friend that lives in my oven:

No one needs to tell me that I need to clean out my oven!

This next one is for Ma (Hi Ma!).  I got back to work on my quilt again:

I got all my rows sewn together.  Now I can start working on the inner border.

And then there's the dreaded jury duty summons.

Oh how I HATE getting these in the mail!!  I don't know why it's always ME that gets these things.  Chuck only got them twice, one of them while he was in Iraq so of course he got out of that one.  I've gotten summoned many times.  So far I haven't actually SERVED on a jury.  Last time I was summoned, I got as far as being "interviewed", but wasn't selected to serve.  It's only a matter of time before I actually get selected, and it makes me nervous.  I wish I would quit getting these things, but that would require giving up my PFD checks every year.  I think most states summon their jurors by drivers licenses, but here in Alaska they randomly pick names from the pool of PFD recipients.  Some people never get picked, while others (like me) seem to get picked all the time.  Anyhoo, I am being summoned for the whole month of February (and of course this just happens to be leap year, lucky me!).  I will keep you all posted on that, even though it's humdrum news.

Too bad I can't send Kiska in my place:

She's good at anything if you just let her sleep through it.