Chelsea was in the shower. Hobbes was supposed to be in bed. I was lying on the couch reading in the dark, on my phone. I felt a bump, but before I could even process whether it really happened, a couple more followed. At that point, I thought Hobbes had snuck up behind me and was playing. I decided to ignore him and wait for him to say something. Soon, there were multiple bumps that happened in quick succession and really shook the sofa. Now, I was annoyed and told him that I knew he was there. He was silent. I turned around but didn’t see him. I got up, looked around, but still didn’t see him. Did I imagine the whole thing? I started walking toward his room. A short silhouette appeared in his doorway.
“My bed was shaking. Not fast, but kinda slow a few times.”
I still wasn’t sure if it was a prank he was playing and that statement was his diversion tactic. After he was back in bed, I spoke to Chelsea. She hadn’t noticed anything, but she began to search online. Hobbes and I had felt a sismo. It was a 5.6 magnitude earthquake centered about 46 miles northwest of here.
I noticed the image above soon after we arrived. It is one section on one of those what to do in case of fire signs you see around hotels, public buildings, and some restaurants. I pointed it out to Hobbes and laughed about it. In Oregon, we had tsunami evacuation signs along the coast, but I don’t remember ever seeing warnings about earthquakes. We certainly didn’t in Georgia.
My favorite panel is number one – “conserve la calma” (keep calm) with the stick figure losing his mind. If it happens again I plan on keeping calm, but I’ll probably pay more attention to all the recommendations from now on.