Back in April of 2013, I was a building and zoning inspector for Mon County, West Virginia.

We were situated in an office up in Morgantown, where I usually worked with zoning permits

and annual municipal building inspections.

Not the most exciting job, but in my line of work, the best day in the job is the day when

nothing happens.

I had a fight against entropy is constant and I had a sign hanging above my desk to remind

me of such.

I simply read, everything breaks in cursive with a baby chair up in the corner.

I remember being called up early one morning, there had been some sort of geological event

and every inspector would be pulled off desk duty.

We needed immediate building inspection in the area surrounding the outskirts of Green

Brear Valley.

We were to coordinate our efforts with a central command up in Green County.

That morning, it seemed like everything was topsy-turvy.

The local news talked about an escaped murderer and we were getting calls about a lake being

drained.

The local hospital desperately needed blood donations, but couldn't tell us why.

Overall, something was up and neither of us liked it, but we went along with it.

I was assigned to a full inspection of a farm close to the epicenter, the Oak Valley

grain farm.

I was handed a dossier on the owner, employees, tax records, zoning permits, all that stuff,

but I was practically pushed out the door before I got the chance to go through any of

...