Mukilteo Musings

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday and I missed church because I had to be Judge Janet with some interesting issues involving some familiar things in Federal Way. But yes, in my Natural Disaster series, I have two more earthquakes to cover. The Nisqually quake happened on Ash Wednesday three years ago and as I said it was a 6.8. The quake in Morocco that killed hundreds of people this week was a 6.5!!

Fast forward about 16 years from 1980--I say "about" because I cannot remember the exact year but about 1996. We have two children by this time and we moved out of Seattle proper into a bigger new house in Mukilteo--25 minutes north of Seattle. My kids say this is a Seattle suburb; I say it is a growing ferry town. I no longer work in downtown Seattle but I handle arbitrations (hence the "Judge" reference). My daughter is about 8 and my son about 11 and we have a young Golden Retriever named Jeb (NOT after the Bush).

About 9 in the evening, I was in the upstairs bathroom starting my daughter's shower. She was laying on the floor in the nearby "bonus" room watching TV with Jeb. (All of these new houses were built with bonus rooms to do bonus things in) My husband and son were watching TV downstairs. At that moment, the 5.1 earthquake hit. The bathroom shook all around me and I immediately knew what was happening but I was remarkably calm. Dave, on the other hand, completely lost it. I guess downstairs it sounded like a train was about to hit the house and shatter the windows. He shoved Lucas under the kitchen desk (all the houses have those, too) and was screaming for me like a girl. Kaley felt the full force of it because she was on the floor and she became completely hysterical. Then it was over! I was calm; and the dog wondered why Dave and Kaley were screaming. That was it--the epicenter was just a little north and east of us.