Shaky exercise ball chair

Today I was at my desk and thought I was experiencing a dizzy spell when I felt like the ball I was sitting on was swaying. Turns out (as my dear readers may have already heard from some more reputable source) it was a magnitude 7.8 earthquake, albeit it 800 miles away. In fact it was near Chengdu, where Alison just bought a ticket to fly at the end of the month.

Before this, the closest thing to a natural disaster I had to write about was the windy night we had a week or two ago. While walking home I was amazed to see the railing down the middle of the road had blown over. I didn't think railings were ones to fall over. I mean, they're railings—shouldn't the wind just blow through them?

In other news, my second bike was stolen yesterday. While with the first theft I could admit some negligence in leaving it out on a busy street with only one small lock on. But this time it was in the bottom of our stairwell, locked twice, and only there because we got home too late the night before to return them to the garage.

But I suppose I have more to be thankful for than to complain about, given the death toll at the other corner of the country.