December 15th, 2017

Since it was Friday and Hal had successfully turned in all his projects, we decided to go out and celebrate after work. We were at the restaurant, finishing up our dessert when the earthquake hit. That was so scary, I don't think I've ever felt anything like that. At first I thought I might be having an attack, but when I realized everything around me was shaking and making noise I knew it couldn't be me. It didn't last for very long, but everyone in the restaurant was rattled pretty badly. I guess Denver does feel tremors every once in a while, but they're so rare and so light that people hardly notice them. Reports claim it was a four to a four and a half. I guess that's only a minor earthquake on the scale of things, I can't imagine living in the Bay Area and experiencing something like that every few months.

Either way, both Hal and I were rattled. We finished up our dessert and went to his place where we could turn on the news and see what we could find. I think Hal just about had a heart attack when he found out the epicenter was registered as being in Arapaho National Forest. The problem is, we're not finding any listing more specific than that. Hal was hoping to confirm that it was at or near Lake Evelyn, but every source we could check was frustratingly vague. Which is odd, since usually they can be amazingly specific in a very short time.

What also seems odd is how long the earthquake lasted. From what we've learned, they don't usually last more than a few moments, thirty seconds at most. This one seemed to keep shaking for about three minutes, and I can tell you that three minutes felt like an eternity. Despite being a minor quake, damages are being reported all across the city and authorities are pointing to the duration of the quake as the reason.

While we were researching all of this I did have a dizzy spell. It wasn't a big deal, I did warn Hal as I always warn someone, and then I basically fell down on his couch and stayed there for a bit. I don't think it would have been very notable, but happening an hour after the earthquake had both of us feeling paranoid. I can't imagine that the earthquake had anything to do with my attacks, but with everything that's been going on since August...

So Hal and I got to discussing that, and I told him about the feeling I've had since then. I don't think I've told anyone except my doctor and my parents. That I had had such a strong attack during the eclipse was kind of a major thing. And now today there was an earthquake and I'm having another attack. It's only two points of commonality, but Hal is certain that the earthquake had something to do with The Ohvao. Combined with him breaking the runestone back in August, he's thinking that somehow his actions might be influencing my attacks. He thinks that rather than there being a physiological connection, that maybe there's a magical connection. With The Ohvao coming down, magic would be returning to our world.

I don't know, I know there's been some pretty strange things going on, but magic? Either way, I did remind him that I was having my attacks for years before any of this happened. His response is that if my attacks are linked to magic, they might have been linked even across The Ohvao. I still think he's grasping at straws. I'm not convinced my attack today had anything to do with the earthquake, not the least of which because it happened an hour afterward. But I have to admit, I've thought many times that maybe my attack in August was somehow associated with the eclipse. And then after finding out about Hal cracking that runestone, and the fall of The Ohvao. That does seem to be a strong link, but really we don't have anything that definitely connects them. It could just be coincidence, and until we can rule that out, I don't think we can say that my attacks are certainly caused by anything. I've been working on this with my doctor now for years, I know how it goes. There were times that I had thought I'd found the connection, always to find it fail.

And even if my attacks are connected with magic in some unlikely way. How would we even go about determining that? Up until now, magic wasn't real. So now there's things going on that says it is real, but we still don't have any experience with it. Only Hal's story of his mentor using a piece of jewelry to light a stone on fire. I'm sorry Hal, but I'm skeptical.

I didn't shut down his conspiracy, I just shrugged and said I don't know. He was at least reasonable enough to agree, we don't know. So we curled up on the couch and talked about seeing the movie tomorrow. Hal and I were hoping to talk to Max about things, but we're unsure about her boyfriend being there. How much he knows, or what he knows. We'll hit an early show and then get dinner afterward. It was her boyfriend that drove her up into the mountains to hear the sound, and it was his window that got cracked. So they can at least tell us about that, and we can judge how much more to say afterward.