Monday, April 18

Hope everyone has by now filed their income tax returns, or asked for extensions. We took care of that dreaded business a few weeks ago.

Had trouble going to sleep last night, for no apparent reason, but got up around 8 a.m., anyway, and did a treadmill session and resistance exercises after breakfast.

Mother came over mid-morning and gathered materials for making Easter cards. Once I was ready for the day, I did a few household chores, including a couple of loads of laundry. Hubbie worked in the yard preparing a couple of raised beds for planting. Predictions are for stormy weather much of this week, which might delay getting the garden started.

I certainly hope we don't have the tornado weather we had last week that claimed the lives of dozens of people across the Midwest, South (our state included), and at its deadliest, the Southeast. But it is spring, and we in the path of these terrible storms know that we'll spend a good deal of our time dreading them, while staying anxiously glued to our TVs for updates.

The bad thing is that as with last week, the first predicted storm is due to happen in the middle of the night tomorrow, when folks are abed. I am unable to sleep as long as there are weather warnings, which I track on TV. I'm glad that I've signed up for a weather-call service through one of the TV stations. If a dangerous storm is in our area, we get a call advising us to seek shelter. So in the unlikely event I should fall asleep, I'd be awakened by the call.

After lunch, Mother continued creating Easter cards. As a base, she used cards with a lace border, done with a punch belonging to a member of our scrapbook club. I punched several cards at our last meeting, anticipating that we would be making Easter cards for Caring Hands Hospice. But we were not called upon to do so, so Mother used them. Recently I bought a similar punch on behalf of Caring Hands Hospice that will be available when we need it for that organization, or for our scrapbook club members to use.

Later, we whiled part of the afternoon away watching the year 2000 movie musical, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." This is a delightful and hilarious movie, with music and lyrics by Andrew Lloyd Weber/Tim Rice, and starring Donny Osmond, and Marie Friedman. I especially like the laugh-out-loud character of the Pharaoh, played as the "king," Elvis Presley. Lots of colorful costumes and peppy tunes in this production.

For supper, we had leftover beef hash, topped with fried eggs, with sliced tomatoes and muffins on the side. Fried eggs are a rare treat at our house.

Just before supper, the Literacy Council director called to let me know that she'd gotten a call from my new student...seems the student had gotten stuck in the Capital City and wouldn't be back in town in time to meet me for our first tutoring session. But she promised to be attendance next week. We'll see. Already, we're off on the wrong foot.

Mother went home after supper, and Hubbie and I settled in to watch TV, including an episode of "Dancing with the Stars."

Just as we finished watching that program, we heard a loud noise, like an explosion, outdoors, and the security light went out, as did the TV. Both came back on within minutes, but the TV went out a couple of more times.

While Hubbie was walking Shih Tzu, he noticed our neighbor in his yard with a flashlight, so he went over there to see if the neighbor knew what the problem was. Seems the power company's electrical safety cutoff switch (or whatever it's called) on a light pole blew, shattering the housing, and killing the electricity to everyone on that line.

Our neighbors behind us, and all up and down the road, except for us, were affected, because we are on another line. Several years ago, the unit on the pole in our yard blew when a woodpecker flew into it.