All's well chez nous
Big quake. Big damn quake. (4:35 a.m., magnitude 7.1, epicentre 30km west of Chch, 10km deep.) Big, long, scare-the-life-out-of-a-person deep rumbling, rolling quake. And aftershocks, a whole entire day of aftershocks -- though I haven't felt one for at least half an hour, thank goodness.
Woke up to stuff falling off shelves, ran for JB's room, got him out of bed and under it (his bed is high for storage, and solid as a solid thing). Curled up next to the bed with Oxer under one arm, stroking the Boy with the other, saying, "It's okay. You're fine. We're fine. We'll be fine ..." on an endless loop. Felt like forever before it settled. But somehow, all this took all of 45 seconds, or so they say.
The next-door neighbour arrived on the doorstep about 5, bless him -- doing the rounds, checking on folks. Found out later he checked on an elderly couple two and a bit blocks away, among others.
We were incredibly lucky: we had power and water the whole time, and no major damage to the house or contents. Or inhabitants. (Though Oxer ran to me for reassurance at every tremor.) Friends and family are all okay, as far as we know, though all shaken, literally and figuratively.
We still have our chimney and roof intact, thank goodness. Lots of books came off the shelves, but there were only a few bits broken, and nothing unrepairable or irreplaceable.
(Oh bother. Just submitted the following to GeoNet "10:34 Quite a sharp little shake -- rattled windows slightly and so on. Not noisy, though. I'd guess about a 4.3, going by today's shocks. -- Followed by two others: 10:39, smaller but still noticeable, less rattling of windows and stuff-on-shelves. Probably under 4. And 10:40, quite slight, no rattling to speak of but still unmistakable." I underestimated, apparently: the first was 4.5, and the second 4.9. Still, not bad for only a day's practice ...)
The front panel fell off our piano, along with all the music books, the Tibetan singing bowl and my Aunt's autoharp. Astonishingly, everything is fine, even the autoharp (good case it has!), and the piano is back to its usual dusty glory. The autoharp and singing bowl have new homes now, though. As do many of the books. Lower shelves are more stable, when the quake is big enough to shake loose the quake-proofing brackets.
JB was remarkably good about the whole thing (bar a few bouts of grumpiness, but that's not surprising, especially considering he'd been up since 4:30). Of course, this may have had something to do with ridiculous amounts of screentime. But, well. He has been doing well at remembering to only drink the boiled water, and use minimal water for hand-washing and flushing and such -- and the hand-sanitiser after. And he quite enjoys having permission to go pee on the bushes ...
Bed now. Surely there won't be any more shakes for a couple of hours, right?
Well, except that one, but it hardly counted.
Woke up to stuff falling off shelves, ran for JB's room, got him out of bed and under it (his bed is high for storage, and solid as a solid thing). Curled up next to the bed with Oxer under one arm, stroking the Boy with the other, saying, "It's okay. You're fine. We're fine. We'll be fine ..." on an endless loop. Felt like forever before it settled. But somehow, all this took all of 45 seconds, or so they say.
The next-door neighbour arrived on the doorstep about 5, bless him -- doing the rounds, checking on folks. Found out later he checked on an elderly couple two and a bit blocks away, among others.
We were incredibly lucky: we had power and water the whole time, and no major damage to the house or contents. Or inhabitants. (Though Oxer ran to me for reassurance at every tremor.) Friends and family are all okay, as far as we know, though all shaken, literally and figuratively.
We still have our chimney and roof intact, thank goodness. Lots of books came off the shelves, but there were only a few bits broken, and nothing unrepairable or irreplaceable.
(Oh bother. Just submitted the following to GeoNet "10:34 Quite a sharp little shake -- rattled windows slightly and so on. Not noisy, though. I'd guess about a 4.3, going by today's shocks. -- Followed by two others: 10:39, smaller but still noticeable, less rattling of windows and stuff-on-shelves. Probably under 4. And 10:40, quite slight, no rattling to speak of but still unmistakable." I underestimated, apparently: the first was 4.5, and the second 4.9. Still, not bad for only a day's practice ...)
The front panel fell off our piano, along with all the music books, the Tibetan singing bowl and my Aunt's autoharp. Astonishingly, everything is fine, even the autoharp (good case it has!), and the piano is back to its usual dusty glory. The autoharp and singing bowl have new homes now, though. As do many of the books. Lower shelves are more stable, when the quake is big enough to shake loose the quake-proofing brackets.
JB was remarkably good about the whole thing (bar a few bouts of grumpiness, but that's not surprising, especially considering he'd been up since 4:30). Of course, this may have had something to do with ridiculous amounts of screentime. But, well. He has been doing well at remembering to only drink the boiled water, and use minimal water for hand-washing and flushing and such -- and the hand-sanitiser after. And he quite enjoys having permission to go pee on the bushes ...
Bed now. Surely there won't be any more shakes for a couple of hours, right?
Well, except that one, but it hardly counted.