Last night after the great-white-wolf* chased us home from our evening walk, we were sitting in our living room enjoying being slightly warmer than when we were walking outside, when the light began to swing and the floors to shake.
My first thought, as this is mining country, was that there was an abandoned mine under us that was collapsing.
Then my beloved said 'earthquake' and I relaxed.
I've looked at the map. Australia is miles and miles from any techtonic plate edges. Earthquakes aren't really an issue. Or shouldn't be according to my basic geography-for-dummies.
The world kept shaking.
"Outside!" my Beloved ordered.
I looked at my Beloved.
Hello. It's only an earthquake. When we lived in the Pacific earthquakes weren't that uncommon, and never having experienced a big one, I've become blase.
But the light kept swinging and it struck me that our house is flimsy to the extreme so I grabbed up the Sprocket.
"Go get Poppet!" I told my Beloved.
My Beloved ran into our bedroom and got the pusher where our Poppet was sleeping and we all dashed into the front garden. And I noticed that the camellias were all moving as if there was an extremely strong wind.
Dogs were wailing their displeasure and we could hear and see neighbours up and down the street. The next door neighbour, knowing the extreme rickety-ness of our house, came to check on us.
"This is an earthquake, darling. Earthquake," I told the Sprocket.
"Call Fireman Sam!" he told me.
"If there's a fire, we will," I assured him.
"Naughty earthquake. Give it Quiet Time," he said.
"Good idea."
Then he wanted down and we had to keep stopping him from running into the still shaking house.
Eventually the world stopped moving and we deemed it safe to go inside. The Poppet did not wake up.
Inside we inspected all the cracks in the house, which we believed to be bigger, but weren't quite sure. A few things had fallen off shelves but we seemed otherwise whole.
My Beloved went online, but the geoscience site was down. Checking out twitter, he found that the quake had only been about 5.3 on the richter scale, but that we were about 19 k from the epicentre.
Now I wonder if my Sprocket will remember the night-of-the-earthquake-which-needed-quiet-time. Will it reach the memory vault, or not?
*The great white wolf is a neighbouring dog who I think is a cross between a samoyed and a wolf-hound, but I suspect is an oversized marema. He likes to go for solitary night walks. We often see him striding out of the mist towards us and I appreciate his fairy-tale aspect. He appears to be friendly, but we worry Issy will get a sudden misguided idea she needs to protect us. Once he finds us, he tends to follow us home.
My first thought, as this is mining country, was that there was an abandoned mine under us that was collapsing.
Then my beloved said 'earthquake' and I relaxed.
I've looked at the map. Australia is miles and miles from any techtonic plate edges. Earthquakes aren't really an issue. Or shouldn't be according to my basic geography-for-dummies.
The world kept shaking.
"Outside!" my Beloved ordered.
I looked at my Beloved.
Hello. It's only an earthquake. When we lived in the Pacific earthquakes weren't that uncommon, and never having experienced a big one, I've become blase.
But the light kept swinging and it struck me that our house is flimsy to the extreme so I grabbed up the Sprocket.
"Go get Poppet!" I told my Beloved.
My Beloved ran into our bedroom and got the pusher where our Poppet was sleeping and we all dashed into the front garden. And I noticed that the camellias were all moving as if there was an extremely strong wind.
Dogs were wailing their displeasure and we could hear and see neighbours up and down the street. The next door neighbour, knowing the extreme rickety-ness of our house, came to check on us.
"This is an earthquake, darling. Earthquake," I told the Sprocket.
"Call Fireman Sam!" he told me.
"If there's a fire, we will," I assured him.
"Naughty earthquake. Give it Quiet Time," he said.
"Good idea."
Then he wanted down and we had to keep stopping him from running into the still shaking house.
Eventually the world stopped moving and we deemed it safe to go inside. The Poppet did not wake up.
Inside we inspected all the cracks in the house, which we believed to be bigger, but weren't quite sure. A few things had fallen off shelves but we seemed otherwise whole.
My Beloved went online, but the geoscience site was down. Checking out twitter, he found that the quake had only been about 5.3 on the richter scale, but that we were about 19 k from the epicentre.
Now I wonder if my Sprocket will remember the night-of-the-earthquake-which-needed-quiet-time. Will it reach the memory vault, or not?
*The great white wolf is a neighbouring dog who I think is a cross between a samoyed and a wolf-hound, but I suspect is an oversized marema. He likes to go for solitary night walks. We often see him striding out of the mist towards us and I appreciate his fairy-tale aspect. He appears to be friendly, but we worry Issy will get a sudden misguided idea she needs to protect us. Once he finds us, he tends to follow us home.
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