Monday, July 9

Up at 6:30 this morning to get ready to go to water aerobics. Overcast skies made for a pleasant walk to the gym (though I wish the clouds had signaled rain...none for us today, however).

Seventeen of us attended the session. The talk today was about a Sunday afternoon lightning strike to the Airgas, Inc. company in town that caused a fire and heavily damaged the business. It was the lead story in our local newspaper tonight.

Along with that story, was one about a storm in a nearby town that produced two inches of rain, blew down trees and power lines, and scattered canoeists, tube floaters and kayakers on a popular river, also on Sunday afternoon.

So, although we would have liked to have rain to break drought conditions in our area, we certainly don't want fire and wind damage.

Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house shortly after I returned from water aerobics. We didn't accomplish much for the rest of the morning. We had chicken sandwiches for lunch, after which Mother headed to the couch for a nap, and I reveiwed an ESL lesson for a tutoring session this afternoon.

Met my student at 2:30, as usual. She was very excited to tell me that a studio space has been set up at her house, so she can paint in her spare time. Today, she came to class with residue of paint on her fingers, and a big smile on her face. She's anxious to join the group of Friday Painters next week at the art gallery.

The student was also enthusiastic about a classic American movie she saw over the weekend: "Gone With the Wind." She also saw it's sequel, "Scarlett," but didn't like it as much.

Today, the student learned vocabulary related to flying: "Mike and Fran are going to fly to King City. Their flight leaves at 9:30 a.m." And time: "There are 60 seconds in a minute," etc.

She learned the structure focus of "It's + time + (for) + infinitive, as in: "It's time to eat." And, "It's time for Fran to run." She also learned the structure focus of It + takes + time expressions +infinitive, as in: "It takes me 30 minutes to get to work," and "It takes me one hour to bake a cake."

In structure focus, she also learned about tag questions with "be." "It's a nice day, isn't it?" "Carla wasn't going camping, was she?"

During our session, her husband dropped by to tell her that the car she was driving was safe...it had smoked while she was driving, and she was concerned. He checked it and said the problem is in the air conditioner.

While he was there, he surprised me with a gift of a cantaloupe. Very nice of him.

Back home, Hubbie had heated leftover rice and green beans from last night, and I heated the gravy, sliced cold chicken, and cut up tomatoes from the garden, to go with our supper.

Afterward, I accompanied Mother to her house, and helped her take a shower, then threw a load of laundry in the washer.

Hubbie and I spent the rest of the evening watching TV, including a 2007 Encore Channel shoot 'em up western called, "Deadly Shooter." A Civil War hero saves a prostitute from a brutal beating by a gang of bandits, killing one of them. In retribution, the gang smashes his shooting hand, beat him to a pulp, and leave him to die, tied to a fence. The prostitute saves him, but she can't stop our hero from going in search of the gang.