Hick is Warming Up My Helicopter as I Type

This morning my phone greeted me with the following text from The Pony:

"So, not to alarm you, but I was woken up by an earthquake."

Perhaps you've heard about it today. A 5.6 magnitude earthquake hit near Stillwater, Oklahoma, at 7:02 a.m. Happy now, you rassen-frassen frackers?

Anyhoo...upon further interrogation, The Pony reported: "I'm fine, was just surprised. It knocked over my deodorant, but that's it."

"It's the fracking, I'm sure. Or else Yellowstone is about to blow!"

"According to my friend, it was a 5.6 or a 5.8, the biggest yet."

"I'm sure your dorm is built to code for earthquakes." Leaving out the little voice in my mind that screamed, 'Are the top 7 floors designed to break off in an earthquake like they are in a tornado?'

"Yeah. My bed was shaking and everything. Apparently, people in Kansas City felt this one."

"I guess that's one OU rite of passage out of the way. Not to alarm you, but you WILL sway more up on the 12th floor. Even the Arch sways on a normal day, and I think it's only 630 feet tall. What time did it happen?"

"I know. Around 7:00, I think."

"How long did it last? Did you think about getting under your desk, after 12 years of school earthquake drills?"

"I was in bed half asleep. It lasted 10 seconds, maybe? Definitely less than a minute. I did not try to get under the desk, since both of them are piled with stuff under them. Plus, I'm on the 12th floor, wouldn't help. First thing I did was check outside to see if it was a tornado. [He IS in Oklahoma, you know] Then got stuff together and went to have pancakes."

"I'll check the news for it. You gave me a blog post for the day! You, and Mother Nature, with the meddling of Uncle Sam. And to think I was worried about Genius when he made his week-long trip to California!"

Funny I should have mentioned that. Because at 9:37, I got a text from Genius:

"Did you see the earthquake?" I might need to have a talk with that boy about his 5 senses.

"Not yet. But The Pony sent me a text this morning. It knocked over his deodorant, and woke him up shaking the bed. 12th-floor-people problems."

"It woke one of my roommates up here. I slept through it. My whole house is going to Elephant Rock today."

"Don't fall off a boulder."

"I'll do my best. If you're worried about THAT, wait until you hear our plans next weekend. Another roommate and I are going to a 3-day music festival in Kansas City."

"Yikes! Don't drop acid."

"Psshhh. That's the only reason we're going. But nah, no drugs."

"Or Molly. Whatever the cool hallucinogen is these days."

"Well, I'm sure there'll be plenty of drugs there. Just no drugs for me. Molly and acid are roughly equal on the coolness scale."

"You COULD be going to a Sooners game with your father, if you're interested in living dangerously."

Funny how he changed the topic after that, about how he might do an internship at Boeing next summer. He's shopping around his options, depending on salary and housing stipends. Let's hope he doesn't go to shaky Oklahoma.

Let the record show that The Pony is in Norman, about 20 miles south of Oklahoma City, around 80 miles from the epicenter of that quake this morning. And that Genius is in  mid-Missouri, around 360 miles away. Hick and I are 440 miles away, and both slept through it, though something else woke me 80 minutes before, which might be discussed with the next batch of unexplainedness from the homestead.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some hovering to do over my sons' lives...