I'm sitting here waiting for the cable repairman--again. My window of opportunity is 8:00 to 11:00 this time, and since it's nearly 9:00, I'm betting it's going to much closer to 11:00 than 8:00, which wouldn't be a problem, of course, except that I got up early so I'd be awake and dressed by 8:00.

I showered, then put the towel around my shoulders, and Dinah did her new trick of climbing up on my shoulder, then draping herself around my neck on top of the towel. I usually stand there in the bathroom for a few minutes and let her lay there and purr and rub against my wet head, then I walk into the bedroom and sit down on the bed and tip her off carefully.

This morning she didn't want to get off.

I walked carefully into the bedroom with her sitting on the back of my neck--a living fur stole--then sat carefully down on the bed and started to lean over so she would drop off, but she didn't drop off. Either she just purely didn't want to go, or she got scared, or she got caught on the towel--I'm not sure which it was--she went down clawing and scratching. On my bare back, of course.

I now have a lovely set of claw marks--four of them, I think--all the way across my back. I'm not sure why they're horizontal, it probably doesn't bear thinking about too closely.

This is exactly what I feared would happen when she thought up this new trick, and we're obviously going to have to stop going it. I know I'm traumatized enough that I don't want to do it again, I'm not sure about her.

I drove in to work yesterday--one of about six people who are still coming in to this office--through a terrific thunderstorm. There was thunder and lightning while I was still at home, and Bob thought I should wait awhile to leave, but it was just rain, so I went on ahead and left.

It was raining pretty hard, and the weather on the radio said that we were under a severe thunderstorm warning and could possibly get some hail, which almost made me turn back, but I was about halfway there by then and hoped I'd get lucky.

I got to the street in front of the office without incident, but the water was so high in the street in a couple of places that I was afraid my car would flood out or float away, and as I drove through the water, I was thinking how dumb it was that I'd gotten out and tried to come to work, and after I parked and got out of the car, I really thought that.

The parking lot was okay, although even with my rain coat and umbrella, I was getting wet. But once I got to the street and tried to cross, I could see there was no way I could do it without getting soaked. The water was running down the street about six inches deep. I walked up the hill about a block to see if I could cross easier, but the water was just as deep, and I finally just gave up and stepped in.

It's quite a shock to put your foot into icy cold water when you're just wearing a regular old leather shoe and socks. Nothing to do but just go, though, so I did, and squished into the building, and took off my shoes when I got to my office. I also took off my socks, and took them into the bathroom to wring them out, but there wasn't anything I could do about my jeans, wet to the knees.

And then, as I was sitting there freezing in wet clothes, and IT guy came in and said they were going to move me because they needed to move my furniture. So I packed up a box with my remaining things and moved over across the hall to an empty office where I'll be just for today, maybe, and then--although no one has actually told me this yet--I may be moving to another office, or I may be working from home for a week and a half.

The bright spot was that the office has windows. I'm going to take the camera to work with me today and take a picture. It might be my last chance.