I Missed an Historic Event...

The very fact that I didn’t feel the biggest earthquake in recent Virginia history gives some credence to my father’s oft repeated commentary on me … “no sense…no feeling”.

Tuesday afternoon started out in a normal fashion. After lunch, Tom went his way for his afternoon jobs. He was focused on getting the broccoli plantings weed-free. They look great!

After completing a few odds and ends, I headed out to pick the grapes on the fence along the lane. The dogs accompanied me to the gate where they would wait patiently (read, fall asleep) until I finished.

As the grapes are quite nice and very prolific this year, it seemed prudent to pick before any rainy weather came in. It was a gorgeous afternoon, bright blue sky, big puffy clouds, and a little cooler than it had been. I popped my earbuds in, turned on the music and began to pick.

Suddenly, Ellie began to bark. Unlike Jed, Ellie generally has a reason for barking, so I looked around. As I scanned the farm, I heard a deep rumble. Figuring it was a large group of motorcycles or a log truck going through town, I looked over toward M’brook road. M’brook Road is very, very curvy on the south end of “town” causing for a lot of downshifting and braking. When I didn’t see anything on the road, and the rumble continued, I looked around some more. No airplanes in sight and I knew the weather conditions were wrong to hear a train running through Buffalo Gap. I did have a passing wonder as to what was going on.But, I never saw anything, then the rumble stopped. I kept picking the grapes.

Moments later, I was surprised as Tom came up the drive, waving me down. I pulled the earbuds to hear him say…”We just had an earthquake! Did ya feel it?” Okay, my first reaction was EARTHQUAKE? In VA? Seriously?…. Maybe that’s just because I didn’t feel it. He said the tractor shook, the broccoli plants shook. He went inside to check on-line to see if he was right. It was an exciting moment, or so he said.

Since it didn’t seem like there was any imminent danger or concern, I replaced my earbuds and went back to the grapes. I must admit, I gave no thought to apocalypse, end of the world or alien invasion.

Later he told me that the epicenter had been in Mineral, VA and it had been a 6. I started paying a little more attention then. We know some folks that live in Mineral…I wondered how they had fared. (they were fine, just shaken) But, there is also a power plant in Mineral. YIKES! That was my second thought. VA Power (now it’s called Dominion) was Tom’s employer for nearly 20 years. In our “other life” we kept our boat at Lake Anna, so we are both quite aware of the power plant. It seems all was well there, too.

So, back to the grapes…

…and that is how I missed the earthquake.
It may just be that I am just a little too single-minded!

But, then again...
What’s that you say?….maybe I should turn the music down? WHAT?