Movers & Shakers

Tuesday started off very boring and just a typical day in D.C., but quickly became a day for the record books. Around 2:00pm a 5.9 earthquake hit the D.C. area. Kelly was in the Ford house building enjoying a beverage when everything starting shaking. When it first hit, everyone in the office just froze (with the exception of one guy who starting screaming "what the F* is that"). Everyone's first instinct was a bomb had exploded in the basement. It was a very scary 45 seconds until we realized it was a earthquake and not an explosion. Sirens, alarms and lights all starting flashing and people starting scrambling. The committee's safety officer was on vacation, somehow Kelly was left in charge of evacuating the office, grabbing the emergency equipment and reporting to the police once was were outside. Fortunately, no one was injured and we got to go home early. The worst part was you couldn't make or receive calls. In the first few minutes we weren't sure how serious it was and if there were injuries, damage, etc. I immediately started calling Ben to make sure he was OK. I finally got a hold of him an hour after the quake, frustrating.

Ben's quake experience was somewhat different. He was enjoying lunch at a nearby restaurant when everything started to shake. With the exception of one man, who jumped up and stared yelling, everyone stayed very calm. Ben's major scare was that he wouldn't be able to finish up his sandwich.  With his turkey panini club safely digesting, Ben headed for safety. Because the phones weren't working there was no way to know what happened. Ben and his co-worker stepped inside a bar and grill to see if they could get news from the TV. In hindsight, going back into a tall building after an apparent earthquake to get information about the earthquake might not have been the greatest idea. Ben's building didn't even formally evacuate, however their office made the executive decision to close up shop for the day. 

Walking around after the earthquake was very odd.  With no real information and no cell service, we just walked around catching tidbits of conversations. Varying reports as to what was actually happening were really the most unnerving thing.  As occasional text message about being safe led to questions if there were people who were not.  

As many buildings were evacuated, it led to significant traffic issues that were compounded by some traffic lights being out.  Ben beat the bus by a record time on his run home.

Before we knew it we were both sitting at home with most of the afternoon at our disposal. We took the dogs for a walk to Lincoln park and enjoyed the most beautiful afternoon we have had in D.C. and then headed home for dinner.

Pickle update. We tried the homemade bread and butter pickles we made this weekend for the first time and were very impressed. They were ground shaking!