Ugly blue corrugated metal fence

Hmmm.  Not much news around here.  For which I should probably be thankful.

Last evening we had another earthquake.  A big one I suppose but not particularly scary and nothing around here broken.  Sudden, strong, and short.  I had one English child here and we turned off the kerosene stove and huddled in the doorway together while the TV and cell phone alarms went off and cats bolted in all directions.  The epicenter was a little north of us but still in our town so later in the evening I got phone calls from friends asking if we were alright.  The telephone lines were out for the first few minutes so that unnerved Tetsu and others who were trying to get in touch with me...  Me, who did not notice the cell phone vibrating much to Tetsu's annoyance. Takumi even called us (4:00 am our time) when he heard the earthquake epicenter was in Nikko.

Tetsu and I probably ought to be more earthquake prepared... we should have learned our lesson in 2011.  We do keep tanks of water and bottled water at hand and a few instant foods but we don't keep flashlights and medical supplies by our pillow as some people do...  I'm probably more conscientious about not letting the kerosene and gasoline tanks get too low but that's about it.

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I noticed that the factory repaired their ugly blue corrugated metal fence that blew down last week.  As predicted, they repaired it with more ugly blue corrugated metal.  To be precise, they repaired it with the SAME ugly blue corrugated metal.  Positively thinking, this is called good recycling.  And trying to be very positive, I admit that the REPAIRED ugly blue corrugated metal blends in nicely with the OLD ugly blue corrugated metal.  I do not give the carpenters points for artistic expression what with the uneven baseline...  

Here is Choco arguing with the dog that lives next to the ugly blue corrugated metal fence.  I have no idea why but Choco and Hana-chan are arch enemies and we cannot walk past Hana-chan's yard without the two of them straining and barking like wild animals.  They both know that they can't reach each other so it may be all show.