Shaken, not stirred

Earlier this afternoon, we experienced an earthquake here in D.C. No, not like the electoral one back in November; a genuine, building-moving-back-and-forth-type earthquake. Pretty paltry stuff compared to what they get in California (5.9 on the Richter scale) - still, the damage was fairly extensive. Just look at what the quake did to my office...



Yes, I know it's hard to believe, but I did survive that.

They’re doing some construction work in our building, and at first I thought maybe a big piece of equipment had gotten loose from somebody and was rolling down the hall upstairs. But the noise kept getting louder, and the shaking more pronounced – and then the alarms started going off and we were told to evacuate the building. My phone rang as I was grabbing my valuables (cigarettes) and heading out the door, and it was Mrs. Paco, telling me that she felt the earthquake in Fairfax, Virginia (the epicenter was near a town called Mineral, not too far from Richmond). The missus was good and rattled (when she was a little girl, she went through the huge 1960 earthquake in Chile, so she’s definitely allergic to these things).

We had to hang around outside for a couple of hours before we were permitted to go back in. The metro was a nightmare, because teams had to check the tracks for damage, but I finally made it home.

And now they're talking about a hurricane this weekend. I've got two dollars in the office pool on frogs and locusts for next Tuesday.