Well, this has been the craziest week ever… Tuesday was my birthday and I got Kristin over to the school to meet her counselor. It took a while to have our appointment, and we wound up just leaving the counselor’s office when I heard what sounded like a freight train rumbling towards us. Then all of a sudden picture frames and stuff started clanking and it hit me that it was an earthquake! I grabbed Leah and ducked under the reception desk, but the counselors started screaming that we should all go outside. So we raced outside, and I turned back to see Kristin sauntering towards the back of the crowd, cool as a cucumber! We got outside and stood around waiting, and she said that in Iceland it is quite common to have earthquakes and she regarded it as no big deal. Well, it’s not the first one I’ve ever been in, but it is the first one I’ve ever experienced (slept through my first and didn’t notice my second!), so I was really, really excited about it. We decided to get in the car and drive home, and when we got here, all the cabinet doors in the kitchen were open, a picture had fallen off the mantle and smashed on the fireplace, and some of our good china had been shifted around.
Some hours later, we felt a good sized aftershock, and then that was it until the next night when we all got shaken awake at 1AM by another aftershock. It was great excitement all around. Many friends and family were terrified, but I suppose in a way having an old pro in the house helped me to feel not so scared. The one that woke me up in the wee small hours of the morning scared me much more than the original quake.
Yesterday, we had a massive thunderstorm. My husband’s radio antenna blew over, our outdoor furniture got blown around, trash strewn everywhere, etc. The power went out at 4:30, just as Kristin was getting involved in a game of Titanic on the Wii, and stayed out for 7 hours. Kristin asked if it was Hurricane Irene, but I had to tell her that sadly, no, it’s just a storm, the hurricane is still to come!
We went out to dinner and had a family meeting when we got back, just to see how she was feeling about things and talk about some things we were concerned about. She then took some candles up to her room to work on her journal and whatnot. A drive this morning shows LOTS of broken trees and tree limbs, so I hope that the damage is done if Irene arrives. Although I am secretly praying that our POS shed collapses in the storm and we can claim it on our insurance and get a new one!
Current predictions are that Irene will hit F’burg as a tropical storm this weekend. I went out this morning and picked up bread, water, shelf stable milk, non-perishable food items, ice for the cooler, and cookware I can use on the grill without damaging my good stuff. I picked up 3 rechargeable flashlight/emergency light things that should last and a bunch more candles. To keep us busy and happy, I got Clue and Monopoly as well. Laptop is charged, cell phone is charged, iPod is charged—we should manage to keep entertained with those things for a while, even if we can’t get online. I hope it won’t come to the point we need to use any of it!
We won’t be going up to New England as I’d hoped because the storm is due to go up that way and everyone is nervous. I need to start looking into what we can do for Kristin’s final week before school starts!!! I have a few ideas. I will write about the positives of this week soon, and yes there are some!!!! This poor kid—she has had the worst welcome ever… But it’s one she’ll never forget, I can guarantee it!
I was really hoping you would update so we could find out that all is well on your coast. Good to hear you are all ok and she is having fun with the earthquake and weather.
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