I was fast asleep, because it was something like 4:30 in the morning, when I awoke to the bed shaking and the windows, pictures and mirrors on the bedroom walls rattling. It's impossible to know exactly how long the sensations lasted because I was sleeping when it began. I sat up in bed and exclaimed, “What IS that!?!?” James promptly replied, “It was Marshall.”
For those of you who don’t know who Marshall is, he’s our cat.
Granted, Marshall’s done some crazy things (one of which ended up with a dislocated toe and a $117 vet bill), but I knew this wasn’t his fault. The whole house was shaking.
James challenged my “No way!” with “Way!” and “Shyeah, right! You explain it!?”
Though I knew it was not Marhshall's fault, I had no clue it was an earthquake, primarily because it was 4:30 and I was in a sleepy-stupor, totally confused about the situation. I was pleasantly surprised to learn we had a 5.2 magnitude earthquake that was centered near West Salem, IL. Per Google maps it’s roughly 147 miles from our house to the earthquake epicenter.
Fast forward to around 10:15 am today. We had an aftershock and from what I hear, it was a magnitude 4.5.
It didn’t last too terribly long, though I have no idea how many seconds. At first just a few knick-knacks were rattling around, and then one fish in particular really began rocking back and forth. Immediately my dog came running into the office and hid under my desk, then the house really started shaking. As I sat there looking up at the ceiling fan above my head, I wondered when I should get up and run for cover.
Then it all ended.
Immediately my husband called to discuss the safest earthquake zones in our brick home, circa 1920. Awesome, this place was MADE for earthquakes (not)!
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