Yesterday, Greg’s work group was celebrating with multiple shifts, and he went back in at around 10 p.m. The dogs and I went to bed. These are unusual going-to-bed circumstances for the Newfs. Jade came into the bedroom with me and went to sleep. I am accustomed to her snoring, which is more rythmic and perhaps a little quieter than when she was younger. So when she is sleeping, I usually know where she is. Parker doesn’t snore as much these days. Odd that humans snore more audibly as they age (or so Greg says), while the Newfs, at least these Newfs, don’t. When he was younger, Parker could move the floors. I could, literally, feel the floor vibrating, to some degree. And when he laid next to the bed, the bed shook like one of those coin-operated beds in a cheap Las Vegas motel. When he is lying against the bed and he scratches, it vibrates even more.
Last night, he didn’t come into the bedroom. All the members were not in their usual places, so he stayed in the living room to keep watch. I reminded Greg to tell Parker about his plans for travel next week. It seems to help if Parker knows what to expect.
At around 10:45 p.m., I felt the bed shaking. I knew where Jade was, but I sat up and looked around the sides of the bed for Parker. He still wasn’t in the bedroom. I wondered whether a train had passed, but trains don’t cause that much vibration. A few minutes later, there was a call from Greg, “Did you feel the earthquake?” I had wondered about an earthquake, but thought we were far enough away from those centers of activity to not be affected. The last time I felt an earthquake was in 1968 in the Bootheel of Missouri, close to the New Madrid fault. A few days before this one, I had watched the PBS episode about the New Madrid fault; otherwise that may not have come to mind. Yesterday, two earthquakes occurred in Oklahoma, one in the early morning and one last night (5.6).
I wonder how many people staying in Joplin for the show thought it was just their dog snoring!
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