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I love a good earthquake. The one this morning was a PERFECT earthquake, a nice 4.2 centered right near our house. (Look at that "Location Quality = Excellent." Why yes, Oakland is excellent, thank you.)

I love it when the earthquake starts, and your brain spins for a second, feeling it, waiting. Is this it? Is this the big one? And when you don’t go flying across the room, when you just have to put your hand against the wall to steady yourself, you realize that this is just one you get to ride out and enjoy. And then after the two seconds you’ve spent figuring this all out, you only have about three seconds left to enjoy, but usually I get a whole lot of enjoyment out of that.

(Flashback – I remember living on Saipan and lying on the beach, and watching the sand actually ripple up to us and past, as the little temblors passed through.)

But today’s quake wasn’t that great, though, because I was in the only place I really don’t want to be for an earthquake (besides the obvious, under a great glass skylight on the top floor of an unreinforced ten-story brick building with a jet-fuel line buried underneath the foundation) — I was in the shower. And I was soaping. After I realized the great thump wasn’t the kittens flying off the refrigerator, and I figured out that it was an earthquake, in that that second before I knew it WASN’T the Big One, I pictured myself having to pick through rubble (light, easily repaired fluffy rubble) to get outside where I would be NAKED, me and the neighbor next door who also gets ready at 4:30 in the morning (our bathroom lights glow in friendship although we never speak), and we’d be all NAKED as everyone else ran out wearing robes. Yeah, no thanks. Plus, I had conditioner in my hair, and then it would have run into my eyes, and when it dried it would have been greasy and I would have had to suffer through a disaster with thick, greasy hair and it would have all been horrible.

So I’m glad it was only a 4.2. And oh, brother, the news is playing it up. I’m at work and we’re watching the LIVE BREAKING COVERAGE and seriously, at this moment, they’re walking thruogh a drugstore where some THINGS FELL ON THE GROUND. A few sticks of deodorant, OHMYGOD. There was some glass broken in Montclair! Oh, there was the funniest video shot in a convenience store where a delivery guys walks in, and walks almost all the way out and then pauses. THAT’S IT! They played it over and over and over, until I finally realized that some candy bars fall to the floor at the point where he pauses. CANDY BARS FALLING! RUN!!!

At least HE wasn’t in the shower.

Did I mention that fateful night when Digit came home, I thought he had a major head injury before I realized it was just the bone formation in his head? He was soooo skinny……

Lala has noted that even his ass is somewhat less bony now!

Whee!

I almost forgot to remind you Bay Area Knitters! Come out and knit with us as we watch my sister’s band Knockturn Alley perform their original Harry Potter songs on Friday night! The book goes on sale at midnight, and they’ll be performing at 10pm, at Bookshop West Portal.

Seriously, I saw their dress rehearsal and they are so GREAT. You will love the songs, I promise. (If you can’t come, you can hear some HERE. "Hey, Hufflepuff" WILL get stuck in your head.) And then get yer copy of the book! Yeah!

Hello, y’all.

Digit is great! So much better! Yelling for food ALL the time, and happy with his pain-patch which he’s still wearing. So, yay. It still hits me sometimes (okay, every day) that this is the guy I lost. The one I said goodbye to. The one I mourned. And he’s really here. It’s still the very most wonderful thing.

And while I would LOVE to show you pics of my newly completed lacy cotton cardie, but I can’t find the cord that connects the camera to the computer. Lala? Any ideas?

But I can show you this cuteness:

Now, Harriet only really tolerates the kittens anyway, so the fact that she rested her head on Willie, even for a few minutes, was mindblowingly cute.

(All pet-blog, all the time.)

I don’t even HAVE much other news. I am moving forward with the tonsillectomy (my second in five years, I always have to mention that). I am extremely displeased, and that is an understatement. Depressed and bummed is more like it. I know going into it how painful it will be and that makes me dread it more. No one can lie to me about ice cream and popsicles. I know better. But last week I had a throat infection flare up for no reason, and it lasted for a week, and I was pretty miserable and unhappy, so I know it’s the right thing to do.

But that so doesn’t mean I’m looking forward to it. Bah.

It rained on my way to work this morning! Warm, weird rain, that made me happy and want to knit. I’m starting to design a sweater for Lala, and while I have two motifs chosen, I can’t seem to find a third that I like, and I’m struggling. Maybe I just need to knit socks some more.

Yes, that’s it. I’m at work, and so far it’s quiet (there’s a new supervisor on shift who doesn’t like the radio or TV on in the background — I thought I would like the silence but the HUM of it seems so loud). No one is really talking, and the phones are blessedly quiet, so I’m going to sit in this rather uncomfortable chair and knit, and look forward to my homemade mac’n’cheese with broccoli that I brought for lunch.

https://rachaelherron.com/hello-yall-digi/

Digit is doing so well! He’s only been home a day, but he’s eating! And this time I hope he’ll keep eating. He has a pain patch on his leg, which I think is really helping, although he’s such a little junkie with it on. Last night I went in to sit with him, and he kind of wobbled his over onto my lap and then gave me a nose kiss. The funny part of that is that DIGIT DOES NOT KISS. You can grab his mug and force his nose to touch yours, and he will growl. It was the equivalent of being at the bar with your curmudgeonly jerkface friend who never opens up about anything, ever, but then he gets drunks and puts his arms around you and slurs, "I lorve you, baybee, I never tell youse, I know, but yer the best thing EVAR and I LOVE you, you know that, man?"

So we like the pain patch.

And here, Lala took this for me (and you!) while I was at work yesterday.

For your daily WonderCat update: Digit’s surgery went great. He woke up very quickly after it, and ate all his dinner last night! They removed several very large bladder stones, and did a quick exploratory look around inside, and didn’t find anything else to worry about! Dude. I am SO relieved.

He ate half his breakfast this morning, and the tech says he’s resting comfortably. I get to take him home tomorrow (well, Lala will, since I’ll be at work, very sad).

I can’t wait to have that man HOME for GOOD. He hasn’t actually met the kittens yet, and I’m looking forward to him being strong enough to do so. Waylon did race into the recovery room once and came face to face with a grumpy looking being with a huge collar around his neck, and the wee cat didn’t know what to do. That was on one of Digit’s really bad days, so Digit did nothing, didn’t react at ALL. The kitten, however, backed up, his body language clearly saying, what the F*CK is THAT?

It will be amusing, to say the least.

Me, I’m okay. Haven’t kicked the throat thing yet, but I will, yo. I’m tough, like my cat-man.