Friday, August 26

Up at 6:30 on this mild, low humidity morning, so I could get ready to go to water aerobics. Had to park quite away from the gym again, but it was a really pleasant day for walking the distance. Nearly 30 of us showed up for the session today. Seems about ten folks showed up Wednesday, despite the storms. But they were only there for a few minutes before being asked to leave, due to lightning. So I'm glad I didn't bother to go that day.

Back home, once I was ready for the day, Mother came over and boiled eggs and cut up veggies and fruits for a tuna and egg salad supper. While she was doing that Hubbie and I went to the hydroponic farm to get some tomatoes, because our tomato vines quit producing recently.

Today, the tomato vendor and her daughter were full of stories about a cat they recently acquired...one that had wandered to their house, or been dropped there. It had kittens in the ditch near their house, but a neighbor dog killed them. So the lady and her kids began feeding the mama cat, which soon became pregnant again. This time she found her way into their garage/laundry room, where it had the litter in a laundry basket full of clothes. One of the girls was playing with a half-grown kitten when we arrived.

The lady is allergic to cats, but is glad this one is there, since it is a good hunter that keeps the rodent and snake population down. The only thing is, it also recently caught a squirrel, which it proceeded to feed to its kittens...before the squirrel was quite dead. The lady said it was difficult to watch this process of nature, but she didn't interfere.

At home again, I put together the salads and then heated the leftover chicken noodle soup for lunch. Hubbie needed to eat a little early so he could get on the road to the other town by noon. The appointment at the auto shop was for 1 p.m.

While he was gone, Mother and I just goofed off...I helped her catch up-to-date on emails and social network posts on my laptop computer. I keep her posted on daily happenings in the family, but from time-to-time, she likes to see the interesting jokes/photo forwards from friends and family in emails, and snapshots/videos of family on the social network, as well as read recent blogs from Sis.

It didn't take long for the auto shop to fix the van, because Hubbie was back home around 2:30. The air conditioner is blasting cold air now, like it should. Hubbie is kicking himself for shelling out the bucks to have freon put in it a few days ago, but he chose to ignore my advice that the vehicle needed to be checked by our auto service.

Later, Mother made a recipe of macaroni and cheese, using bits of packaged shredded cheese and remaining slices of various types of sliced cheeses (a way of using the last of foods and avoiding waste). It was good with a choice of tuna salad or egg salad sandwiches for supper.

Mother went home afterward, and Hubbie and I vegged in front of TV. Tonight, we saw the 2007 Lifetime Movie Network feature, "Vacancy," starring Kate Beckinsale, Luke Wilson, and Frank Whaley. A married couple on a trip get off course and end up at an isolated motel. They find video tapes in their room, and upon watching them, find that couples were killed in the very room they occupy. And then they discover they are being filmed by hidden cameras. Unless they escape, they'll become the next victims of a snuff film.

A second LMN movie was "The Unquiet. A skeptic and her ex-husband, who is a documentary filmmaker, along with a crew of people, decide to stay overnight at an abandoned women's prison. The skeptic has been hired by the prison's owner, who wants proof that the prison is not haunted, so he can open it as a tourist attraction. The ex-husband documents paranormal activity. The group come across information about the prison's violent history. Do ghosts now haunt the facility? I found it interesting that all the actors in this film were costumed in various shades of gray...I guess so they would blend in with the gray of the dark, unlighted prison.

Interesting lead story in our local newspaper: an ex-state trooper (in his 60s), who lives in our town, was arrested for growing marijuana in his vegetable garden. It was spotted from the air. The ex-cop is the ex-husband of someone with whom Hubbie and I worked years ago. We'll be interested in getting her reaction when we see her again.