Unfolded

I have never been so happy that the yoga ball I use as my desk chair sits in a frame to keep it from rolling around as I was yesterday at 1:50pm. Not everyone in Ohio felt the earthquake. It was more apparent for those of us in taller office buildings. At first I felt a little dizzy, like I was having vertigo. I had trouble focusing on the computer screen. Then my body seemed to pulse, as if my heart was beating hard and I could feel the pulse throughout my body. I looked up and saw the leaves of my plant quiver. Was there construction going on somewhere in the building? A canon fired at the statehouse across the street? Or did I just eat something that raised my blood pressure?

Things settled down, and I wandered out of my cube to see if anyone else felt it, too. Half a dozen people were telling each other that yes, they'd felt it, too. A few minutes later the word came: an earthquake, epicenter in Virginia.

I tried to settle back into work, but I still felt a lingering vertigo and nausea. I was finally got back into my work about half an hour later.

When I got home around 6:30pm the power was out at the farmhouse. I don't know how wide an area was effected, but it was at least my neighborhood. The refrigerator felt...not exactly warm, but not cool either, when I opened it to put my food away.

My plans for the evening had included a load of laundry and a hot bath, both of which had to be abandoned, as we have no running water in a power outage because we're on well water.

I have no idea whether the power outage had any connection to the earthquake. Rob did say he saw a power truck in the neighborhood, likely searching for the cause of the outage. The power came back on about 8pm.

It was a weird and slightly unsettling day.