Well I Never...

Today I actually came home for lunch instead of the typical smushed sandwich or cafeteria food I usually “enjoy” between or during classes.  I ended up getting to the house around 1:15.  I turned on the sprinkler, watered my potted plants on the front porch, printed off some notes, and enjoyed some delicious leftovers and half an episode of Criminal Minds.  Now I had to be back at school by 2:15 in order to get a delightful TB shot.  But, before heading out of the house I heard the house “creeeeek” (which isn’t unusual when you live in a house that was built in 1925).  Then I felt trembling in the floor (again…not uncommon with the right combination of things...an old house + wood floors + bumpy brick road + ________.  Which the ______ can be filled by a number of things depending on the day and month:  a UPS truck, school bus, garbage/recycling trucks (Thursdays), snowplows (November-March), or a car driving too fast over the holes this brick road disguises so well.
Full disclosure. If someone was hard-of-hearing, they’d have no problem detecting everyday things here at 525 Earl! They’d be able to use the vibrations as a secondary indicator for someone walking up the front steps, knocking on the front door, shutting a door (old doors can be tough cookies, especially when its cold), or even someone walking “heavily” across the hardwood floors in the living room.  So, like any normal person, within the next 5 seconds my thoughts progressed in this order:
#1: The mailman had come early.  But then the vibrations were strange and lasted longer which caused me to question if I would really hear/feel the mailman on the front steps all the way in the kitchen?
#2: The school bus is dropping off the kids next door (they only go 1/2 a day)…but I didn’t hear the squeaky brakes.
#3: Someone’s at the back door. But then there was no knock to follow!
#4:  Someones’s in the house!!  Suddenly frightened, I assumed stealth-mode, frozen and utilizing my super-sonic hearing abilities, while waiting for someone to jump around the corner.  (At the same time trying to remember if I had locked front and back doors?).  But I didn’t hear anything else and I couldn’t feel the vibrations anymore.  Then when I noticed that the brooms were swaying a bit.  Hmmmm?!?!?!
#5: Earthquake!!  Wait, I live in Ohio.
#6: Was the basement window open allowing a draft in?  A quick check confirmed that was a negative.
With that my detective skills were exhausted and I had to get to school.  But before leaving I did take a quick peek out of the front door window to confirm a vacant front porch and empty mailbox.  So, I headed to school for a shot and an afternoon of lectures, YAY!  Long story short, I just got home and I guess for the sole reason of ruling it out, I googled "earthquakes+Ohio”….and low and behold my 5th assumption was right!!  Today a magnitude-5.9 earthquake struck Virginia at about 1:50 p.m. and tremors were felt in New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, Tennessee and the Carolinas. You can learn more about the details here Virginia Earthquake Shakes Ohio or here Tremors Felt Across Ohio (Rebecca Maurer quoted)