!! E A R T H Q U A K E !!
Betty and I were in a store in Northfield when we heard others discussing the what they felt. The salespeople talked about the merchandise in the back wobbling. A customer said she had been in her car and thought somebody was purposely shaking it. I helpfully suggested it may have been a big truck passing by--after all, I reasoned, we don't have earthquakes in little ol' New Jersey.
Only we did. Up north called to say the pots and pans had shook and clinked. The woman across the street from Betty's told us how her kitchen floor was shaking so much she had to sit down (maybe a bit of exaggeration there). I called Walter and he and Susan weren't even aware of it. Ellen called from California where they really get 'quakes and P. commented on FB that it was "interesting, isn't it?" There, they're all too familiar with earthquakes.
Anyway, great excitement for a time. Betty and I were a bit chagrined to have been the only ones in a five hundred mile radius (around Richmond, Virginia) who didn't feel a thing.
But it was such a nice visit. I got down there about 8:00 on Tuesday and we walked over to Hannah G.'s for breakfast. Carole C. joined us there; had oatmeal. Later, we strolled on the boardwalk. Met Muckie for lunch in Northfield, then went various places shopping, including the relocated jewellery place where Betty bought two magnetic bracelets (I have three of them). Hit a number of other stores, then went back to Ventnor; sat on the porch and talked and talked. I took a walk down to St. James while Betty prepared dinner. It was good: chicken and veggies in the crock pot, plus the roasted veggies I brought.
Wednesday, we met Helen C. for breakfast in Northfield, then went to Santori's there, a location I had never visited. I got lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, peaches, and beets. Back at Betty's, we sat again on the porch; she made a nice lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches, and we--yes, talked and talked.
I left about 2:30 with many thanks and the assurance to each other that we'll make staying over at each other's houses a regular thing, probably monthly. Stopped at the cemetery on the way home to water. Got home and immediately scrubbed and cut the beets and put them in the oven. Made a big salad, some of which I had later for dinner, then jumped in the shower. Passed the rest of the evening on the computer and watching my 45 minutes of daily television. (Longer than that, my brains would liquefy and drip out of my ears.) Actually saw--AND ENJOYED--the National Dog Show, then went to bed to sleep the sleep of the just. (That's one of my favorite phrases. Is it because I'm just or because I'm not just? It suggests, I think, that the unjust aren't sleeping soundly, but brooding over their transgressions, so when you sleep well--which I did and usually do, but not always--it indicates...oh, the hell with it....)
WIDER: Recently discovered a terrific blog called "For Want Of A Nail." Here's just a tiny sampling, the writer commenting on the national debt and what a very convenient scapegoat it is to stamp out social programs:
"Liberals and conservatives must, in their most honest moments, know that their elected officials detest programs like union rights, welfare, unemployment insurance, food stamps, etc. We hear from gratuitously rich assholes (politicians, for short) all the time about how these programs – which are not even strong enough to keep those most vulnerable to the capitalist system from absolute ruin – make Americans lazy, about how they ruin the work ethic of humanity, how evil these programs are. So we know already their stances on such subjects, and the only reason these programs exist in the first place is that once upon a time workers were conscious enough of their own class interests that they threatened to take power by force from these politicians if they were not instituted. But over the decades they have been chipped away at and turned into the scape-goat for every social and economic woe America faces."