I just finished writing Year of the Dog ! It had a massive plot hole that I had to fix which turned out to be more work than I expected. Here’s a snippet: “Hey, Auntie Nell.” He wrapped his arms around her, bussing her on the cheek and breathing in pikake flowers and shortbread cookies. And suddenly he was nine years old again, and her solid presence had made his chaotic world stable once more. “What are you doing here?” He usually took her to dinner on Wednesday nights, but today was Tuesday. The edges of her smile faltered a little before brightening right back up again. “What, I can’t visit my nephew?” She angled around him to enter his home. “Is this your new house? Looks lovely.” Which was a blatant lie, because the fixer-upper was barely livable, much less acceptable to a neat-freak like his aunt. She also left four matching pink and purple floral suitcases on the stoop behind her. Only then did Ashwin notice the cab driver standing slightly to the side of the walkway. “Can ...
Captain's Log, Supplemental
Some of you might have heard about the 5.2 earthquake in San Jose last night. Just to let you know, we’re okay.
The house started shaking, and after 17 years in California, I know by now to run for a doorway. The shaking was over in a few seconds. No big deal. Not even a broken plate or glass. A couple CDs fell off my shelf, nothing else.
Even before the shaking completely stopped, I’m standing in the doorway to my office like a good Californian, and I see Captain Caffeine walk into the foyer!
“What are you doing? You’re supposed to be under a desk!”
“Uh ... I was keeping the cabinets from falling.” (Translation: he was holding the cabinets closed so the glasses wouldn’t rain on the kitchen floor, which in hindsight was thoughtful of him, but I’d rather have glass over the floor instead of a ceiling tile falling on his head!)
My friend Dineen lives closer to the epicenter, so I called to see how she was. Everything was fine at her house.
“In fact,” she said, “Shasta knew the earthquake was coming before it hit.” (Shasta is Dineen’s dog)
“What? Really?”
“Yeah, she ran under the table.”
By now, I am glaring at my own sorry excuse for a mutt, Snickers, who had not done ANYTHING before the earthquake hit. Weren’t all dogs supposed to be sensitive to this kind of thing? Hadn’t the animals gone berserk before Mount St. Helen and the big quake in ’89?
What had MY dog done? Nothing before the quake, but she ran barking into the front foyer as soon as the house started shaking, because obviously some giant was trying to get into the front door and steal her food or something like that.
Greeeeat protector, huh?
Anyway, we’re fine. The house is fine. And the dog is sleeping like she did something strenuous yesterday.
Some of you might have heard about the 5.2 earthquake in San Jose last night. Just to let you know, we’re okay.
The house started shaking, and after 17 years in California, I know by now to run for a doorway. The shaking was over in a few seconds. No big deal. Not even a broken plate or glass. A couple CDs fell off my shelf, nothing else.
Even before the shaking completely stopped, I’m standing in the doorway to my office like a good Californian, and I see Captain Caffeine walk into the foyer!
“What are you doing? You’re supposed to be under a desk!”
“Uh ... I was keeping the cabinets from falling.” (Translation: he was holding the cabinets closed so the glasses wouldn’t rain on the kitchen floor, which in hindsight was thoughtful of him, but I’d rather have glass over the floor instead of a ceiling tile falling on his head!)
My friend Dineen lives closer to the epicenter, so I called to see how she was. Everything was fine at her house.
“In fact,” she said, “Shasta knew the earthquake was coming before it hit.” (Shasta is Dineen’s dog)
“What? Really?”
“Yeah, she ran under the table.”
By now, I am glaring at my own sorry excuse for a mutt, Snickers, who had not done ANYTHING before the earthquake hit. Weren’t all dogs supposed to be sensitive to this kind of thing? Hadn’t the animals gone berserk before Mount St. Helen and the big quake in ’89?
What had MY dog done? Nothing before the quake, but she ran barking into the front foyer as soon as the house started shaking, because obviously some giant was trying to get into the front door and steal her food or something like that.
Greeeeat protector, huh?
Anyway, we’re fine. The house is fine. And the dog is sleeping like she did something strenuous yesterday.
Comments
Seriously--glad y'all are okay!
And maybe Snickers had a word from God that this wasn't the big one, so keep your owners calm by not reacting:-)
Your Snickers sounds like Vader. He's supposed to be here to protect me, but he hides behind me if anything scary is going on.
Maybe it wasn't actually an earthquake, and an invisible giant really was coming to steal Snicker's food. Just because they SAY it was an earthquake... you can't believe everything you hear. :-)
Glad you're all safe. Don't think I could handle such as that. Here in Louisiana we get more warning about hurricanes and tornados.