Young cat. . . .

My cat Arthur, known in other venues as the stupid cat, is . . . well, a cat-shaped object. His behaviour patterns are not entirely catly.

I was sitting in the computer chair (a fairly comfortable swivel chair with arms) with my feet propped up on the cat tree. He climbed into my arms for a snuggle.

Now, being a posable cat, he got rearranged a few times before I spilled him out onto my thighs, where he sprawled for some time, his forepaws straight in the air.

After a little bit he sort of animated from whatever reverie he was engaged in.

Then he stretched those forepaws hiiigh up over his head.

Then he sneezed and tucked them in against his chest.

Then he stretched them out to one side.

Well, after that he fell off, so he didn't manage the last bit, but . . . .

. . . the rest is silence.

The phone rang about nine-thirty. teinedreugan's father, saying they'd lost contact with the shuttle.

A few minutes later, a vibration in the desk drawer. teinedreugan's pager, confirming, speaking of debris.

He got up. A while later, he came and confirmed that Columbia was lost.

My first thought was, "Feynman can't solve this one for us."


I got up and started looking at things. My second thought was on reading the BBC, and was something like, ". . . shit. There's fodder for the conspiracy theorists."

Aside from these two thoughts, I have nothing. Other people have things. I refer y'all to them.

• the BBC
  
• the Washington Post
  
• I'm guessing this is a Seattle paper
  
• CNN
  
  
• wcg, speaking about the Penguin
  
• patgreene, a perspective
  
• elynne, song lyrics
  
• solipsistnation, ow
  
• shaddragon, more song lyrics, these Jordin's, which puts a fold in my reality
  
• sstaten, memories
  
• rivka, watching
  
• brian1789, thinking really hard
  
• nex0s, requiem

I don't have words of my own. So I'm pointing every which way at people who say things.

If you get an outfit you can be a cowboy too.

"Hail, chief!"
"No, no, Penfold, that's quite all right, I--"
"No, I mean it's starting to oooomphht!"

teinedreugan and I went out to steak dinner. We tried to go to Home Depot to buy bookshelves, only they told us they closed at ten and didn't let us in. So we went to the other Home Depot, stopping at the grocery on the way (and getting hailed on) for butter, but the other Home Depot is right next to a bookstore. So we went to the bookstore too. And got shelves after to put the books on. And I didn't get a fig tree, though that was mostly because I sprung it on him rather abruptly.

On the way home we saw an SUV and what I can only describe as a big-assed pickup truck had gotten into a fender-bender, demonstrating that they had, in fact, picked on someone their own size. We also followed the salt truck almost entirely home, through several turns and twists around Lynn. We followed it from a bit of a distance.

Maybe once the shelves are up I'll do a before-and-after entry about the revamped mathom room. It's a nice colour now. (And it makes a happy sound.)

And I have new Cherryh, which I think I am going to go eat now.