Thursday, August 25

Slept really late this morning, until after 8 a.m., but did a treadmill session and weights exercises after breakfast. I didn't have a lot planned for my day today, so I just did this and that for the rest of the morning.

After lunch, Hubbie took the van to the dealership where we bought it, which is about an hour away, to have the shop check the air conditioner. Later, he called to say the air conditioner needs some sort of part that has to be ordered. The shop hopes to be able to get the part overnight, but it still means another trip for Hubbie tomorrow.

While he was gone, I watched a couple of episodes of "Shark Week" features that I recorded on DVR from the Discovery Channel. I think these fierce predators are fascinating...and scary. But nature shows are sometimes not Hubbie's favorite.

Hubbie returned home around 2 p.m. A few minutes later, the auto shop called to say the part will arrive in the morning. So Hubbie will go back to the town after lunch, because I need to use the van to go to water aerobics in the morning. I could drive the diesel truck to the college, but I don't like to, because it's so noisy, and because it's hard to maneuver in and out of the parking spaces.

Later, for supper, we had a buffet of leftovers...the last of the lasagna, beef strips with peppers and onions, green beans, and diced baked potatoes sauteed with onions. Mother stayed home today, so she didn't join us.

Afterward, we toured the yard, where I snapped photos of flowers, and Hubbie took a picture of me on my new bike, because Daughter asked me to post a snapshot of it to my social network page.

Then we spent the evening as usual...watching TV. Tonight's movie was a strange and disturbing period drama titled, "The White Ribbon." This subtitled film was in black and white. The story takes place in a small village in Germany, in which the children are suppressed and ritually punished, and where, just before the outbreak of World War I, mysterious things happen. A doctor's horse is tripped by a thin wire stretched across the road, and the doctor is severely injured. A woman falls through a mill floor and dies. A barn burns in the middle of the night. A young boy is strung upside down and then severely beaten. A mentally challenged boy is waylaid and blinded.

The story is narrated by the now-elderly school teacher, who discovers the culprits of the crimes. But when the village minister is advised, he chooses to attribute the crimes to the doctor, who, along with his daughter, housekeeper, and her mentally challenged son, have since mysteriously disappeared. The doctor had his own secrets...having an illicit affair with his housekeeper, whom he despised and found physically repulsive, and whom he emotionally abused, even as he also sexually abused his fourteen-year-old daughter.