The sound of a volcano...

There I am, laying awake in bed just after midnight, wondering when Squirt will get up for his nightly drink and how long it will take me to get back to sleep when I heard...

PFOOOM

PFOOOM

PFOOM, PFOOM!!!

and here is the associated thought process after hearing the noise...

Haven't heard that here before in March and why is the bed shaking? Earthquakes don't normally sound that way that I have heard. In Oklahoma or Houston, Texas, that sound would have signaled someone setting of mortar style fireworks.

But here...

when it is 15 degrees out and nothing specific to celebrate???

Is a moose on the deck? Did a bear find the bird feed - they're out you know...?

HMMM.... I wonder if the volcano blew...

I then get up, get dressed, head downstairs, make Squirt go outside just in case ash is headed our way, check the volcano web site and sure enough, we are condition red - whatever that means.

I head back upstairs to let Robert know I think the volcano blew and we both head back downstairs to check the web site again to confirm, then call a couple of friends so they are prepared and get the house sort of ready for ash fall. Robert plugs the 9 inch air in-take in the garage (there's enough air leaks that this one is good to plug for a couple of days) and I tape up the windows by the electronics. (Having learned in the hurricanes in Houston that there is such a thing as too much tape.)

Sure enough - there were 5 different explosive eruptions last night and it is still going on. We did have to work today because ash went the other direction from Anchorage - thank goodness.

So how many mother nature phenomena have Robert and I been through?

Tornadoes
Wind Storms
Hail Storms
Blizzards
Earthquakes
Hurricanes
Floods
Drought
and now a volcano

so what's left besides a Tsunami and Sand Storm???

Regardless - I'm leaving the windows taped for another couple of days!