Thursday, January 29

We slept late this morning, as we have been doing lately, and arose to a sunshiny day. The trees were sparkly silver against a blue sky, so I grabbed my camera to snap a few photos before I did a session on the treadmill. I wasn't dressed to go outside, so I just snapped what I saw from the upstairs windows and balconies.

Once I was ready for the day, Hubbie and I ran errands. The temperature was on the rise, helping melt the ice. As Mother said, it rained ice cubes today. As we traveled to town, though, the ice-covered trees on the hills shimmered in the sunlight. It was just lovely, and though we couldn't help but appreciate the beauty, we also couldn't help thinking about all those who are suffering the adverse effects of it. So often with nature, the same things that are beautiful are also the most treaturous.

Our errands took us first to the newspaper office to pick up yesterday's edition, since ours was not delivered. Then we went to the greeting card shop for Valentines. We spent enough that I was able to use a $2 discount coupon.

From there, we stopped by the bank, which was useless, because Hubbie had forgotten to bring his checkbook. So we went to the pharmacy, but Hubbie realized he'd also forgotten to bring along a prescription discount coupon.

Then we went by another bank to pick up more calendars that feature two of my photographs. I'll give these to family members who want them when we visit them in February. Then we stopped by the cable TV company to schedule a repairman to come and replace the cable box upstairs that was working before the power outage, but did not work once power was restored.

From there, we went to the WDCS for groceries. The store was packed with folks buying ready-to-eat foods and water to tide them over until their electricity is restored. By the time we got back home, it was about 12:30 p.m., so we didn't have lunch until 1 p.m.

This morning, Hubbie got a call from Daughter, asking to borrow our generator, because their power is still off and they need to get electricity to the freezer. Grandson came about 2:30 and picked up the generator and a chainsaw. He reported that damage in his part of the state is massive, with thousands still without power, live power lines and tree limbs blocking streets, the tops of trees broken, pine trees snapped in half, and hundreds of telephone poles broken. While he was here, he took advantage of a hot shower, after several days of bird baths.

While Grandson was here, a young man from a local college stopped by to pick up four ladder back chairs to use in a play being produced cooperatively between the college and the community theater. Members of the community theater board got e-mails yesterday asking for this type of chair, and I happened to have what they need, which will be about all I'll contribute to the effort beyond attending the performance.

Mother came over during the afternoon, and at 5 p.m., we went to weigh in at Weight Watchers. We skipped last month, so we had to pay a fee. Mother had gained a pound since we last weighed, and I gained a half pound. So it's back to basics for us, after over-indulging during the holidays. We were given lots of new literature tonight to help us get back on track.

Mother went home after the meeting, and I fixed freezer-bag omelets, sauteed potatoes from leftover baked potatoes, turkey bacon, and wheat bagels for Hubbie's and my supper.

Afterwards, we watched "Wuthering Heights," a public channel movie offering based on the 1847 Emily Bronte novel of obsessive passion between Heathcliff and Cathy...a story that was so scandelous in the writer's time that there was a call to ban the book. But it is a book that has never been out of print since that time.

Later, we watched our favorite college basketball team play to a win after losing their first four games in SEC competition. It's such a shame that so many fans are without electricity tonight and couldn't watch this game.