Friday, September 2

Hubbie hung the flag this morning, which he'll do every morning through Labor Day.

I was plenty tired last night after a very active day, so I slept well, and awakened to the alarm at 6:30 this morning. Attended water aerobics as usual. When I entered the dressing room, I noticed several women seemed downhearted, so I asked what was wrong.

I was stunned to learn that one of our members had suffered the most awful of things...her daughter had been murdered by her husband, who then committed suicide. The couple had been estranged. Sadly, too, the couple's son was the one to discover them after they had not shown up for work and could not be reached by phone.

This lady is in her early 80s, and is fragile, but her 88-year-old husband is even more fragile, having had heart and other problems recently. I don't know how they will cope, and I'm just heartsick for them. The lady and her only daughter were very close.

We proceeded with water aerobics, but this news cast a definite pall on the group.

Later, once I was ready for the day, Mother came over. After lunch, Hubbie and I ran errands...to the bank, and then to the radio station to try to exchange some tickets we bought for a show at Branson that turns out won't be scheduled during the time we'll be there. The receptionist said she thought there were no more tickets available, and of course they don't refund, so I guess I'm out of luck. Hubbie suggested we leave the tickets for someone else, which we did.

From there, we went to the farmer's market, where we bought a couple of containers of banana peppers for the freezer, as well as yellow squash for our Labor Day meal. Then we went to the vitamin store to pick up a container of multi-vitamins, and a box of no-salt seasoning. While there, I noticed that quart jars of local honey were available, so I bought one of those.

Then it was on to the WDCS for a few groceries and incidentals. Drat it, as Hubbie was backing out of a parking space after we'd finished shopping, he whacked the side of a truck. Our van suffered the most damage. The woman driving the older truck said she didn't think it had enough damage to worry about, but she wanted to contact her husband to get his opinion, so we gave her our name and number.

At home, Hubbie had to take a rubber mallet to the van, where it was scrunched near the left rear light, because otherwise he couldn't have opened the back hatch, where our groceries were.

Shortly, the woman's husband called to say he wasn't going to do anything about the ding on his truck. So Hubbie checked with our insurance agent, and learned that insurance will cover the cost of the damage. The agent said they would even fix a dent in the hatch door, where a tree limb had fallen on it a couple of years ago.

This little accident wasn't anyone's fault. We were parked next to a long wheel base pickup truck, and Hubbie couldn't see past it. The lady driving the truck couldn't see us backing out of the space, either, because of that parked truck. Hubbie backed out very slowly, but it doesn't take much to do damage to today's flimsy vehicles.

At home, while Hubbie was out dealing with insurance matters, I set the DVR for Mother to watch a movie Hubbie and I had seen Wednesday night..."Knowing," the doomsday film starring Nicholas Cage.

Later, we had a supper of leftovers, and then Mother went home. Hubbie and I watched TV for the evening, including a 2009 Lifetime Movie Network film called, "Out of Control." A young female forensic scientist wants to become a detective, and gets her chance when she is asked to investigate a potential dirty cop.

The second feature we saw was a 2010 Lifetime Movie Network movie, "The Stepson." A woman's husband is killed in a hit and run accident. The woman, herself a grief counselor must now deal with her own grief. Soon, her estranged stepson shows up on her doorstep, and despite her better judgement, she takes him in. Naturally, the aggressive personality of the son, and the reason for his banishment from the family, soon emerges.