SO I CAUSED ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE....

Friday evening, I was scheduled to fly out of LAX homeward bound for Arizona.

Mechanical difficulties, I assume - the actual announcement was "All Tucson flights have been cancelled; go to United customer service."

I hastened there, in the vain belief that somehow I would get better hotel accommodations if I was one of the first in line. 

Ha.

I got instructions to catch a shuttle to the Ramada Plaza hotel.

After waiting almost an hour for something, ANYthing with a Ramada logo, a modest van showed up to give myself and three other Tucson-declined travelers a ride to a... well, less-than-modest hotel within eye sight of the iconic LAX restaurant. 

I get checked in... was informed by a random resident, "Don't go over to the exercise room, there's a couple having sex there right now...." found my room, including dinged furniture, several non-working lights, and only one working telephone.


I did the only practical thing possible.... ordered pizza.

Then sat down, trying to find something reasonable to watch on television.



Suddenly, the bed I was sitting on began shaking.

My first thought was, oh, now, someone BIG in the next room is having SEX.

Then I realized - it was an earthquake.

Not a big one - just 5.1 on the Richter scale

Enough to let you know it's an earthquake, enough to roll everything around some, and enough to get all the news anchors excited again - "Could this be the preliminary to the BIG one?!?

Thanks goodness - it was only that one small one.

HOW MUCH IS THAT DOGGY IN THE WINDOW?

I'm in the market for a dog right now.

Yes, my husband already has one, but she is a blonde, scared of her own shadow, and prone to barking at only imaginary sounds.






Since my husband may be leaving for a year overseas, he and I agreed I needed a bigger, better sort of guard dog.

So I've been visiting our local animal shelter every couple of weeks, and have linked up with a German Shepherd rescue group.


And I'm determined to wait until I really, honestly and truly, fall in love with a dog.

It hasn't hit yet, and I am willing to wait. 

RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY....

We need rain.... desperately.

We're not in anything like the drought in California - I mean, hey, we're in Arizona.

But we've had a good growing season, and then a longer than normal dry period, where everything which grew has turned into tinder.

We've got a very, very high fire rating right now.

So we need the rain.

But I don't need the rain.

My husband keeps remarking what a comforting sound rain makes.

While when I hear rain falling, I'm thinking

- my poor horse is outside standing in it.

- my poor dog, who doesn't understand why she keeps getting put on in the rain, and just waits patiently at the same door to come back in.

- a leak which shows up occasionally in my bathroom.

- how muddy it's going to be tomorrow.

Maybe I need to watch "Singing In The Rain" before I try to go to sleep to change my attitude.