EARTHQUAKE!

After breakfast at Ellen's, I left for home. As I walked up to my door, I saw Suzanne sitting on a chair in our mutual walkway. She asked if I'd pick up her mail while she's away from July 18 to August 5--why, sure, of course, I'll be glad to. She came in for awhile to chat. I was sorry to hear she's still suffering from the fibromaralgia (damn, I can't spell it and neither can idiot SpellCheck), especially along her right arm and shoulder.  She also gave me several little plastic hats in red, white, and blue for the fourth--I'll give them to V. and V. tomorrow and see if we can get a pic with them and Sebastian wearing them.
Spent a fair amount of time on financial stuff and there are more such mundane chores to do. Drove to the 99-cent store for some small items, then to Wal-Mart to see what I could get for Violet. Not a damn thing, as it turned out; it was all crap. I think I'll go to the mall this morning. El asked me to pick up an ice cream cake, so I'll get that, too. She called later to ask if I had a small suitcase Greg could borrow, as they're going to New Mexico for a vacation next week. I'll bring two over today.
                                                              Earthquake!
I forgot to mention in my entry for Thursday that I had called Cheryl, my co-T.O.P.S. member, who often takes me to the meeting, to tell her I was going to skip it yesterday (Friday). Earlier, Ellen had asked me if I had felt the 6.4 earthquake. It had occurred while I was marking in the parade and no, I hadn't. She had and said her house had been "rolling." When I chatted with Cheryl, she mentioned the same thing. She and her husband were just coming back from vacation and had stopped at a gas station--yoicks, near the epicenter! She said the station was shaking violently and people were running outside screaming. Well, that was interesting, but no concern of mine...
I sat down at 8:00 to watch my daily television--two half-hours of Frazier, then it's bedtime--when my chair began to shake. And shake. And tremble. This went on for 45 seconds or so, which seemed an eternity, of course. The earth had finally decided to rid itself of those troublesome humans and all their works and I was going to die!
I had no idea what to do. The only thing that stuck in my head was to stand in a door frame--or something. I opened the front door just as Suzanne did. I stepped into her living room; she had the television on and we found it was a 7.1--gawd!  I went back in a few minutes to turn on the news myself and got the lowdown on the quake. I'll have to read up further on it, but all I fervently wish is that Ma Nature fixes herself a nice Margarita and gets more mellow after this.