Memories of March 11

Well, things are feeling like a normal, a new normal. It seems like I've lived through a couple of months instead of not quite 2 weeks. The day the earthquake (EQ) hit, I remember thinking, "I wonder where the epicenter is and how many people are going to be affected". It was much the same feeling I felt on September 11. What the heck is going on!?! The EQ lasted for over 3 minutes and for those who have ever gone through any kind EQ that is FREAKING FOREVER!!!

And it wasn't so much that it was a jarring impact, jackhammer kind of sensation, it was like a rolling sensation, very similar to what you feel like standing up in a small boat on the shoreline. It was a rolling, up and down, shifting feeling. And the weird thing was that you could look at the ground and it was like a lake with a tide, the solid ground really did move like water. Parked cars were swaying and shifting from side to side and back and forth, swings were swinging back and forth like kids were in them and they were swaying 10 feet in the air. It started slow and we are used to do them tapering off and everyone was waiting for that, but it just got stronger and longer.

I had our 2 girls and a friends 2 kids with me and we went outside. You are not supposed to do that, but I figured being out in the open with no danger of things falling on us was better than being in a cinder block house. With all my incredible parenting skills, I turned it into a game for the kids an we pretended we were surfing. They thought it was so much fun. They spent the time giggling and falling and running around. The kids think back about it and laugh. THANK YOU JESUS. I do NOT have that same reaction...

We were supposed to go see a movie at 4 so I was in the process of getting them gathered together. This is a process I call "herding bubbles", Aaron calls it "herding cats" but it has the same result. The more you wave your arms and try to flock them together, the more the scatter. (You're all thinking, "Yup".) Anyway, when it settled down I thought it was safe to come in and finish gathering the bubbles and shoes and coats and, and, and... when the first aftershock hit. We had 4 very strong aftershocks, the smallest was 6.7 and all were within 30 minutes of the main EQ. Anyway, we after awhile we couldn't tell if we were experiencing an aftershock or just trying to get our sea legs under control. We were in the theater when the tsunami hit, and wow, it took my breath away when I saw the pictures. I knew then it was going to be devastating. Can you imagine? I still am in awe of the power of water.

Anyway, I guess I didn't realize I've never really described how it felt and any details about it, but know you know.

This is the LINK OF THE DAY!! I really should have music playing when I announce the link, but non-the-less, here it is...

http://www.japanquakemap.com

Once you have it linked, give it a minute and just watch. It is a time lapsed image of the quake activity since March 11. It is AMAZING!! We are almost due west of Tokyo which is in the center of Japan on the east coast. We are about where the first Japanese character for Tokyo is. And I know you all know how to read Kanji by now right?

If you take the time to watch from March 11 to the present, you will notice there are quakes that were located in Tokyo or the circumference radiates to the area we are and to answer you question, yes, we felt 4. We felt the 5:30 am, 9am, 2pm and 5:30 pm.

So that is my story and I'm stickin' to it.