My first earthquake...

Yesterday I experienced my first earthquake. Hundreds of miles from the epicenter, and it was still strong enough to cause all the light fixtures in the casino to sway. It even knocked bricks off the building my wife works in. Other than that... kind of a non-event.

Hurricane Irene, on the other hand...

The "cone-o'-death" now spreads quite nicely over my house for Sat night/Sun morning. I expect no real winds... but I can plan on copious amounts of rain and frequent power outages. The rain is fine... but I'm no fan of the power outages, I can tell you that. Still, I have water, propane and lamp oil, so I should be ready.

Busy day today... Katey, our 18-year-old, leaves for college tomorrow, and she is NOT ready to go yet. Seems she spent last night emptying her closets and dressers of ALL their contents and spreading them (seemingly randomly) around her bedroom floor. She then took my soft-sided luggage rack for the top of the truck and put ALL her clothes into it. It is amazing how such a small girl can have so many clothes... and how much those clothes weigh. She used no luggage, mind you... just loose clothing in the carrier. {sigh}

I want her to be excited for the experience... but just a touch of common sense (from both her and her mother) would be nice. She's only going to be away for nine days before her first long break for Labor Day, so how many outfits will she really need? I paid for unfettered access to the laundry facilities... so surely she can't be expected to take ALL her clothes, right?

Well... I'm off to start the day. Jambo should be in MS already (or very nearly there). I wanted to call him last night, but the cell died in the car and things were simply too crazy in the house once I got home. If you read this... call me when you are functional.