Wednesday, March 24

Another very pretty day. It's looking more and more like Easter, with trees like snowy white Bradford pears, and blossoming pink magnolias, along with bright yellow forsythia bushes, as well as daffodils, and even pretty little periwinkle flowers.

We were up at 6:30, so I could go to water aerobics. Fourteen of us showed up this morning, with each of us complaining of how cool the water was. It was okay once I was used to it, but that first plunge sure was shivery.

One of the members, who has been absent for a while, returned today. Seems she was recovering from an injury to her leg, when one of her heifers kicked her. This lady is in her 70s, but is still raising cattle...alone. I don't know how she does it, since she has difficulty even walking. She's pretty strong otherwise (she was once an Olympic-quality swimmer, and still is our strongest swimmer), and she says she does most of her work with a four-wheeler.

After I got back home and ready for the day, I continued reading the John Grisham book until time to go to the museum for the first of the FilmFest screenings. There were two short films today. One was about an appalacian guitar maker. Son, who plays guitar with a couple of bands, would have enjoyed this film.

The second screening was about an albino African-American blind man, who has been working for 30 years in industries for the blind mattress factory.

The screenings were at noon, and we were encouraged to bring brown bag lunches. We, of course, took ham salad sandwiches, a choice of pretzels or corn chips, and cookies. A few others brought lunches, too, but most did not. Tomorrow, there will be another brown-bag lunch screening at the museum.

Back home, I finished the John Grisham book, while Mother worked puzzles, and Hubbie watched basketball games.

For supper, we had beef hash, using the leftover roast from Sunday, and a choice of Lima beans or butter beans.

Later, Mother and I went to one of the colleges for another session of FilmFest screenings. These were short French films, subtitled, of course. There were some cute ones, including a musical spoofing American corporate greed, and an animated one about a character who is affected by an asteroid and knocked 91 centimeters off center.

More serious ones included a man who tries to commit suicide by jumping in a lake in winter, but lands, in his underwear, on a hunk of ice. A woman happens by who is having marital problems, and instead of hurrying to help the man, she chatters on and on about her husband woes. Finally, she decides to try to save the man by swimming out to him. She wades to within feet of him, and when he sees she's in shallow water, he hops off the ice, but goes completely under, and drowns.

Another one features a woman who, while riding her bicycle, is hit by a car. In her dying moments, she thinks of the last time she saw her friends, of how curt she was with her Mother the last time she spoke with her on the phone, the last time she felt rain, the last time she made love, etc., and how she might have done things differently if she'd know those were the "last times."

We enjoyed the screenings, except for the fact that since they were shown in the art gallery of the college, we had to sit on metal folding chairs. My back and legs did not enjoy that. Mother was really stiff when she got up to leave.

Refreshments were served...bags of popcorn, cookies, trail mix, and bottled water or sodas. I ate a small cookie, and brought a bag of popcorn Hubbie, who stayed home to bathe Shih Tzu and watch basketball games.