A Rare Event

There is a song which as words something like ".....is it an earthquake or is it at last love?...."  Well, it was an earthquake.   And I remember a few of them in Maine where they are relatively rare, but I never experienced one like last night's.

My dog had come in from his nightly business mission and should have been settling down.  He began pacing and looking at me expectantly and my response was, "Go lie down, you just came in."   Yes, I do talk to my dog. And I did say to him as he was looking at me, "I wish I knew what you are thinking."   Shortly the house began to shake as though a train had derailed (the tracks are only about a mile south as the crow flies), or a plane crash (the air port is about three miles to the north) -  and then the room  became a Disney attraction, shaking  in all directions.  AND THEN BOOM!  and explosion of epic proportions followed by a diminishing of the trembling.
The dog looked at me one more time and I am sure he was saying "I told you so!".

Every week there is an "Emergency Management Alert"  test on televison which interrupts programming.  Each time there is a severe storm in New Hampshire to our west, or in the northern part of Maine which is miles away, the raucous claxon pierces our ears and the red banner streaks across the screen with the printed warning while a robot issues a statement.  SO, WHERE WAS EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT LAST NIGHT?   Couldn't they have come on to let people know this was an earthquake which registered on the Richter Scale at 4.0, and had a scope of several hundred square miles?   What good are they if they are not on top of what's happening in real time? 

Well, it's a lovely day today.  If there have been after shocks, I haven't been aware of them.  After a lot of rain and a couple of heavy frosts the plants are ready to be prepared for winter.  I will find my clippers and gloves and do the job over the next few days which are predicted to be good.

I had hoped to make a trip into the middle of the state this fall but the rainy weather dampened my enthusiasm.   Maybe next year.

"October gave a party,
The leaves by hundreds came -
The Chestnuts, Oaks and Maples,
And leaves of every name.

The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band."

"October's Party" - George Cooper