"When I Was 69" why?

 The Way-back machine offers a memory of a memory.

Just why did I call this blog "When I Was 69?" Here's a blog written 2 years after my 69th birthday.

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2013

On my 69th

I had completely forgotten about how Washington DC was first hit by a 5.8 magnitude earthquake which occurred in Virginia on August 23rd, 2011.  Other family members in CT felt the earthquake, but I didn't myself while I was visiting in CT.

That was my birthday, when I turned 69, and right after that, Hurricane Irene hit the northeast (where I was visiting.) The news and weather were there, but lots of other things were happening that took precedence, like children, dinner, celebrations.

The earthquake (and Hurricane Irene) did have an influence on me.  I've mentioned before that I had originally planned to see the museums in DC on my way meandering home.

When I found the exits with no gas, no facilities, and sometimes closed due to flooding under the interstates in NJ and PA, I decided to not compete with those who really needed the motel rooms around DC.  They were also probably there because of the evacuations from Hurricane Irene as well as the earthquake.

My fellow blogger mentioned how the Washington Monument was currently sheathed in scaffolding to repair damage from the earthquake.

I still think about some of the events which happened in the year before turning 70.  

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Background Info:

At 1:51 p.m. on August 23, 2011, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck 90 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. Visitors inside the Washington Monument's observation deck were thrown about by the force of the shaking; falling mortar and pieces of stone caused minor injuries, though all the people inside exited safely. Damage occurred throughout the metropolitan Washington area, but the Washington Monument was among the significantly damaged structures. There were no deaths reported, but a lot of buildings were damaged.

From the Smithsonian

Damage to the Washington National Cathedral in D.C. from the earthquake in central Virginia on August 23, 2011. (Credit William Leith, USGS. Public domain.)

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Hurricane Irene hit the east coast of the US between Aug. 27-29, as a tropical storm for most of the damage it inflicted. I was visiting my son and his family in Simsbury CT, where power was lost early in the day. We texted friends and relatives, and wanted our hot coffee and some food. But most restaurants were closed. We finally found a Dunkin Donuts near the airport and drove there, crossing at least one little stream's bridge that was still just barely above water.

We had kept in touch with news via a hand cranked and battery powered radio which I'd given my son. I keep meaning to purchase one for myself.

Here are the details about that day on my blog. 

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Today's quote:

At that time, when I had just turned 69, I wrote:

My friends out in Washington state are still having difficulties with the people they work for.  It has become so extreme I'm encouraging them to start to pack up and plan to get out of that toxic environment.  I find it hard that they have stayed this long, but sometimes a free apartment in exchange for work that seems easy to do can be enticing.

But like I've found many times, when the pain gets so intense that it intrudes on everything in your life, you take whatever steps are possible to relieve it.  I also tend to endure a lot before I notice how all my friends and family are wondering why.  I think inertia is the most probable reason.

I have broken some of my inertia today.  How about you?

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And my note from the present is that my friends did move away from the toxic environment in that apartment complex.

 2007 my friends Rosie and George Beddingfield helped me move to Black Mountain. They lived nearby in Etowah NC.  Then they moved to Tacoma WA to be near their sons.  I've since lost touch with the husband, after my high school buddy died about 8 years ago.

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Yesterday I posted an article in our local paper about Annelinde Metzner...and today I share a poem she wrote.

https://annelindesworld.blogspot.com/2025/09/dont-we-all-want-quiet-now-that.html

Don't we all want quiet
now that the hurricane is gone?
It's August, down by the creek,
the soft burbles soothing my mind and body,
a lullaby for my soul.
An old couple nearby
talk to each other so peacefully,
so comfortably,
so full of gladness,
that they too, like the water,
soothe my soul.
Here and there, a fallen tree
seems to become absorbed, the next new thing,
as nature does,
incorporating the downed trunks
for animal homes and compost,
insects and lichen.
"Older than a thousand year storm,"
She whispers to me,
almost casual, this great truth
that all living things live by.
Incorporate, love what is,
and keep living on,
start life anew,
all this that it's ever been. 

Annelinde Metzner

August 29,2025