the jar of coins on a free standing shelf starting rattling first.

then my desktop montiors and office chair shook.

as i looked around at all the loose and free standing objects in my office i saw visions of our earthquake conscious, california living friend robbie darting around admonishing “all of this should be secured to the walls!”

i went downstairs and asked the family if they felt anything strange. they looked up from the book they were reading on the couch like i was somehow off.

but out the window i could see my neighbor outside their house looking up as if something were falling from the sky.

“[name redacted], why are you outside?”

she responded – “why are you outside?”

so at least two of us noticed something strange had just happened.

thirty minutes later i heard the report that a 5.8 magnitude earth quake shook virginia.

while i’ve been in places with earthquakes, this was the first one i ever felt. and this was nothing compared to what the folks in new zealand and japan have experienced recently.

it is quite an amazing sensation and one that i’m glad i got to enjoy at the lowest levels of magnitude.