Mark Twain

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Friday, August 26, 2011

Shakes in the Earth

Mr. Earthquake has to wait his turn to be represented in my blog!! I have a blogging schedule to maintain, and not even the earth moving under my feet changes that!!!

:-)
(Could I be a little rigid, maybe?)

Yes, just like everyone on the east coast of the US I felt the earthquake, and I have a bit of a story to tell.

Of course, I wasn't anywhere special. I was typing away on my computer in the kitchen. My husband was playing away on his XBox 360 game in the living room. Mom was sitting on the deck off the kitchen enjoying the sun.

Life was normal and quiet for a change. (I knew it couldn't last.)

Gently the room started to shimmy.

I looked up at the corner cabinet. The glass door was moving back and forth. The walls were trembling. The whole house seemed to have a case of the jitters.

I looked at my husband. He never stopped playing his Xbox game. I checked mom. She was still sitting quietly on the deck as if nothing was happening. I jumped up and kept looking around. I looked again at mom. Her glass of water was giggling next to her hand. Her expression never changed. My husband was still playing his Xbox game.

In that 5 seconds I thought I had finally gone nuts!!

Yep!

That was it. I had finally flipped out from stress!!!

The corner cabinet began to rattle more. Some glasses started to bump against each other.

hmmm....

Maybe it was time to say something ...

"Hey, do you think we are having an earthquake?" I called to my husband. He pulled his eyes from the TV screen and said, "Why yes, I think so." Man, he was calm. But he missed a golden opportunity to deny it and play with my mind a bit.

I opened the slider door to speak to mom. "Mom, I think we are having an earthquake." She responded with annoyance, "Well, some'tens going on!" But she never moved or blinked an eye.

Shoot, was I the only one who was worried about this?

Apparently!

And then it stopped.

I flipped on the TV. It took the news about 10 minutes to catch up to what everyone else already knew. We had an earthquake.

*****
Ok guys, I can play that game too.

So this coming Saturday, when Hurricane Irene finally arrives in Maryland, when the winds are howling at 55 miles an hour, and the wind gusts reach 70 miles an hour, and the darkness covers the sky, and the rain shoots sideways in blinding sheets of water, and the guttering on the house begins to peal off, and tree limbs are flying through the air, and the waters begin to rise ...

I am going to be cool. I am going to be calm. I am going to say things like ...

"What rain?"

:-)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

And when that tree branch comes sailing across the living room don't even look up until someone else mentions it. lol.

Linda said...

Just get all snug inside first!

Retired Knitter said...

@ mybabyjohn, good one! I will be ready when that happens.

@ Linda - actually standing outside with my eyes raised to the hurricane sky, hand lifted to catch any drops would be more effective - when I deny there is a problem!!

unsure of the future said...

ha ha...have you ever seen the movie The Great Race with Jack Lemmon? This reminds me of a scene from that movie. Jack Lemmon's character Professor Fate is on a melting iceberg with 3 other characters and is told by one to keep the fact that the iceberg is melting to himself...and then Professor Fate says one of my favorite lines in the whole movie "Oh of course I'll keep it to myself...until the water reaches my lower lip, and then I'm gonna mention it to SOMEBODY!"

Hope the hurricane has lost it's punch by the time it reaches you!

Chatty Crone said...

Oh my gosh you are about an hour from me - why didn't I feel it?

g-girl said...

lol! your husband and mom are officially Californians in my book. ;) That's typically how most of us react when there's an earthquake!