It awakened me at 4:38 a.m., according to the clock on my dresser. I believe I could feel the bed shaking. I immediately got out of bed (conscious of the four large bookcases in tipping-range of it) and stood in the doorway, listening to the closet doors rattle and the chimes in the grandfather clock play by themselves. The shaking lasted for a couple minutes, fluctuating in intensity (the clock chimes rang only at the "peaks" of the wave).It didn't feel particularly severe. Nothing broke, nothing fell over. The water, power, and gas were still on when it was over. I'm not sure I could even feel anything from my perch in the bedroom doorway. But it was hard to get back to sleep afterward.
I didn't keep myself awake by thinking about the fact that a major fault runs under Missouri, and experts have been predicting a severe quake for some time. I didn't particularly worry that my cats were at large in the apartment and I couldn't do anything about it. I only briefly considered the likelihood of additional quakes following the first one, etc. Most of all, I avoided thoughts of how I would get out of the apartment if it ever came to standing in the doorway or death. So instead, I kept myself awake with the thought that I'd better improve my vault-out-of-bed time if I want to avoid waking up in A Mangle Made of Books.
3 comments:
Greetings! Nice to know that you are undamaged after the shake-up. I lived in Springfield for a while during my college years and recall clearly the speculations about when the fault would give. Seems that's been answered, now? Maybe not.
I had been reading your blog for a while now with Feedreeder, wondering if you were the same Robbie F. I knew from Yuma. Seems that you are--photo looks like I would imagine you as a child, you are living where that Robbie F. moved to, working as a lackey, which is what I heard about him later, and love words and music. I would even bet that you like Harry Potter an awful lot. You would remember me as "Vicar Chris"
How have you been?
Yo, ex-Vicar Chris. You may indeed remember me from Yuma. Where did you end up? As to how I have been, I could be better (e.g. in the parish), but I can't complain. I get to play a fine instrument, sing great music, enjoy a big city, and be a small part (lackey indeed) of an often exciting corner of the Lord's work. Look me up on the Synod website & drop me an email sometime, then we can catch up in a more specific way.
We felt it in Ohio too. Not so strong and frightening as it must have been for those of you who are closer.
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