Wednesday, July 22

I guess I shouldn't have had hot chocolate so late last night, because the caffeine in it kept me awake. I tossed and turned endlessly, and visited the bathroom twice, before finally drifting off.

At 1 a.m., I thought, "Oh, no, now it's only five hours til I have to get up"...at 2 a.m., I thought, "oh, no, now it's only four hours til I have to get up"...at 3 a.m., I thought, "Oh, no-o-o...and then I drifted. Three and a half hours later, the alarm went off. Oh, no!



So, I've been draggin' my wagon all day. I couldn't seem to get my morning started after I got up, and I was late getting to the pool. I had only ten or fifteen minutes to swim in the deep end before aerobics started.



Funny story from the pool: as I approached the rope that divides the shallow end (where we have aerobics) from the deep end, one of the ladies already in the shallow end lifted the rope to let me walk under. Unfortunately, one of the plastic buoys on the rope has been broken somehow (we suspect one of the kids who used the pool for swimming competitions probably did it), and it fills with water like a bowl.



Naturally, this was the point I chose to go under the rope, so the lady lifting it inadvertently dumped the captured water onto my head. Everybody else broke out laughing, commenting that I'd been properly baptized. Most of us ladies are careful not to get our dyed hair wet in the pool, because of the chlorine, so it must have been comical to see me get a good dousing.



This episode wasn't as bad as one I experienced many years ago, though, when at a business convention banquet, a waiter with a tray full of desserts tipped the tray just enough to allow a slice of coconut cream pie to slide off, which upended onto my blond bouffant hairdo. He was one mighty embarrassed waiter, and I was certainly the floor show for the night.



Once I was ready for the day after water aerobics, Hubbie and I ran errands...to the grocery store that sells my favorite brand of cottage cheese, and that had bananas two lbs. for a dollar, and other low-priced fruits; and then to the WDCS for last-minute groceries for the trip.



Following a deli turkey sandwich lunch, we carried stuff out to the camper. We have enough food to feed an army, so there'll be plenty for us, as well as Son, Daughter-in-Law, and Grandson, who will arrive at camp Friday night.



They plan to tent camp on our campsite. Predictions are for beautiful weather, so they should be comfortable in their tent. It'll be fun having family to go with us to the festival, too. Friday, I'll try to enter Grandson in the grape stomping contest. I hope he gets to do it. It'd make great pictures for a scrapbook page.



At the fair: according to tonight's Daily Blab, the daughter of one of our community theater board members won the Miss (Our County) beauty pageant at the fair, and the daughter of a lady who was once a member of our (now defunct) Extension Homemakers club won third place in dancing at the talent contest. This is the daughter of one of the ladies we know who can "talk the horns off a billy goat," and she nearly did when she stopped by the Caring Hands booth last night to "chat."

After a supper of goulash and salad, I went out to the yard to cut surprise lilies (also known as resurrection lilies, magic lilies, or naked ladies) for a bouquet to take with us on our trip. Actually, a bunch of them were "pre-cut" by the cats, who routinely snap the tender stems walking among the plants. I figured that if the cats are going to destroy the flowers anyway, we might as well have a bouquet of them to enjoy for a couple of days.

After supper, we watched TV for the evening...an episode of "Miss Marple," recorded on DVR from PBS, and an episode of "The Closer."

Later, when Hubbie went upstairs to shut down the computer, I heard a crash and a loud thud. I figured he must have fallen, so I rushed to the stairwell and called up to ask what had happened. He didn't immediately answer me, so I called more loudly and more anxiously. He finally answered, sheepishly, that he was okay. He'd tripped over the telephone wire in the dark and fell to his knees, pulling the phone receiver off the hook on his way down.

"Why didn't you answer me when I first called? I asked.

"I wasn't hurt, and I was coming down to tell you what happened," he said.

"Yes, well, in the meantime, you nearly gave me a heart attack!" I chided him.

He chuckled, obviously thinking I was overreacting. "Next time, answer me right away," I insisted. He smiled, but nodded his agreement.