Wow what a week and a half we have had. Seems like all we are doing is dodging left and right from one natural occurrence to another. Hopefully we are done with all this craziness!
First there was the earthquake that shook Virginia and the rest of the east coast. Earthquakes don’t happen in Virginia, at least not ones you can actually feel and certainly not this large. Living in Richmond we were only about 45 miles from the epicenter and since I work on the 7th floor of a all glass building we really felt the shakes and saw all the other buildings around us swaying. I dont think I will ever forget the look on our HR directors face as he walked out if his office and stared at his glass office wall as it was swaying back and forth. Shock and disbelief only begins to describe the look.
John was home alone and he says all the pups and cats reacted before it hit and were totally freaking out during the 30 seconds or so it lasted. He said our entire house swayed and rocked. Luckily no damage to to our home or that of our family and friends homes that are aware of.

Later than evening our AC unit stopped working and it took 3 days and 3 visits from the repair team to get it up and running. They did mention it appeared to be knocked off its setting foundation and that may have happened from the earthquake and caused some of the issues. While we will never know for sure if the earthquake was part of the problem it sure seems like to bit of a coincidence for it not to be related.

It was a good thing they were able to fix it when they did because not two hours after it started working we lost power for 5 days thanks to Hurricane Katrina. Yes Katrina decided to pay a visit to Richmond and hang around for several hours. This wasn’t a surprise, we knew we would get some of the outer bands here and that would result in some heavy rains and winds but what surprised everyone was that it stalled directly over central Virginia and gave us over 12 hours of wind gusts, most over 50 mph and straight hours of pouring rain.

I had planned for the storm and had lots of storm foods and drinks ready. I had charged everything up that I could but I really didn’t think we would be out of power for so long. Thanks to a gas water heater we at least had hot showers and could wash dishes, we were able to eat using the gas grill and having to go to work for three and a half of the powerless days actually was a good thing as it made the time go quickly and I was able to charge up the cell phone, Kindle and iPad for use at night. The hardest part of the outage was actually no cell service as we lost all cell phone and 3g internet service use along with the power. We couldn’t call and check on anyone at night, nor could we surf the web and waste time. hehehe. We instead spent our nights reading off the Kindle and sleeping well. I can’t complain though as we now have power while thousands do not and our home is safe, while so many lost theirs. I count ourselves very lucky but as soon as the gouging prices fall back to pre Katrina levels John is buying a generator

Tomorrow I am off to Florida for a much needed girls weekend where there is power and no hurricanes (at least for now) in sight. Should be a great time with lots of tales to tell upon my return. Until then, take care and be safe.