Tuesday, June 12

Slept late this morning, until nearly 8 a.m., which felt good after a sleepless Sunday night. I anticipated a leisurely breakfast and sipping coffee while I watched the morning shows, but promptly after we'd had our toast, Hubbie sped outside to feed the cats and check on Mother.

A few minutes later, he returned, escorting Mother to our house. He then rushed upstairs and changed into "going to town" clothes. By 9 a.m., he was ready to go vote in the run-off election. I don't know why he was in such a hurry, but it meant I had to scoot upstairs and make myself presentable.

We arrived at our voting place by 9:30 (since it's less than five minutes from our house). Later, in the van, he commented that it took us longer to vote today than at any time in the past, even though we were the only three folks (numbers 6, 7, and 8, of those who had voted by that hour) standing in line for the voting machine to select between two candidates.

We asked how many people are registered at that polling site, and learned that there are 850. Only ten percent of eligible voters were expected to turn out today. It was going to be a long, boring day, we were told. These same two manned the poll during the regular primary, and at that time, they were earnestly hoping there would be no need for a run-off. They came prepared with novels, word-game books, a newspaper, and a laptop computer, but I'm sure the hours still dragged.

Took us less than ten minutes to vote, but since we are personally acquainted with the couple manning the poll, and there was no one else around, we spent thirty minutes visiting. Talked of many things, including gardens, whereupon the wife of the couple commented that she had a lot of gourds growing, and would we like to grow some? Hubbie said yes.

Interesting: next door to the polling place is a stone house, surrounded by gardens planted with every color and description of artificial flowers. There's such an abundance, we wondered how much money the owner had invested in them. They certainly aren't inexpensive. The same home features a beautiful vegetable garden. We could see yellow squash ready to pick, as well as other lush plants ready to bear fruit.

Back home, since I didn't have an opportunity to exercise before we rushed to the polls, and since I was already dressed, I decided riding my bicycle was in order. Hubbie had earlier said he needed to get into the yard and pick up limbs from yesterday's storms, so he had changed into work clothes as soon as we got home. I didn't expect him to ride this time. But he allowed as how he had time to ride with me...I think he's afraid to let me ride alone, for fear I might have an emergency medical problem. But as far as I know, I'm in fine shape, and feel I'd be safe to ride alone.

With him along, though, the pack of dogs that usually rush out to bark when we pass concentrated soley on Hubbie, and ignored me. These dogs, including a chocolate lab, a beagle, and a little fuzzy mixed-breed dog, are all bark and no bite. They just want us to believe how fierce they'd be if we trespassed on their property. Truth be known, they'd do nothing more than bark even if we rode up their owner's driveway.

Farther down the road, there are a couple of hunting dogs that bark, too, but they are confined by a fence to their yard. There are also a couple of snippy dogs at another house, but today they didn't bark, because their owners were at the end of the driveway using shovels to smooth out ruts and rearrange gravel after yesterday's storms.

The day was beginning to warm up, and we could feel a rise in humidity, but there was a nice breeze that made the ride comfortable enough. Felt a bit like we were riding uphill both ways today, though, and we were sweating when we got back.

Mother worked on her jigsaw puzzle while we were gone. Later, I set out a lunch of salads from yesterday, making hamburger bun sandwiches with the chicken salad.

After lunch, Hubbie went back into the yard, and Mother and I put together a recipe of Dragon Soup to simmer. Mother's job, as usual, was to dice veggies...onions, carrots, celery, and banana peppers, which I sauteed in olive oil. To this I added a quart of grape tomatoes that we'd processed a few weeks ago and put in the freezer; a can of chicken broth, and a can of beef broth, and a container of broth from the freezer left from slow cooking a pork roast; and various spices, including salt-free seasoning, pepper, paprika, rosemary, thyme, oregano, garlic, and parsley. Once this brew had simmered for a couple of hours, I added leftover veggies that I'd collected from past meals and put in the freezer.

Mother and I relaxed after that...she caught up on a week's worth of newspapers, while I played on my laptop computer. Later, we made a batch of homemade biscuits, and a recipe of cornbread to go with the soup. We used sour milk that had been in Mother's refrigerator to make both breads.

After supper, I accompanied Mother to her house, and helped her take a shower, then threw a load of laundry in the washer. Back home, Hubbie and I watched TV, including a 2002 crime/action movie called, "Ablaze," starring Ice-T, John Bradley, and Tom Arnold. An oil refinery blows up, and a hospital is threatened. Fires everywhere. People running around on fire. Hunk heroes.

In the news tonight: our local paper reported that yesterday's storms resulted in a power outage to 1,500 folks on the other side of town. Power outage at the high school, too, where poles were snapped in two when a tree fell on the lines. Good thing school is out for the summer. Thankfully, all we experienced was a brief brown-out.