Wednesday, Oct. 17

Up at 6:30 to get ready for water aerobics. The day started off cool, so I wore fleece. On the drive to the college, I enjoyed a lovely sunrise...pink sky, with purple-gray clouds whisking past.

Stangely, on the walk to the gym, a brisk wind blew at me from left to right, even as the clouds raced by from right to left. Add to that the sudden sound of multiple emergency vehicle sirens on a nearby road, and it was like a scene from an alien invasion movie.

The water in the pool was wonderfully warm again, and 22 of us attended the session. One lady commented that she'd attended a Ladies Night Out event at a local college yesterday afternoon. I had the event on my calendar, in case I was free to go, but I couldn't, because we made a trip to another town yesterday.

I haven't attended this event in several years, because the organizers irritated me when they insisted every attendee had to listen to the lectures in the auditiorium, before we could visit the exhibits, or receive a goodie bag.

At the time, none of the lectures applied to me (gastric bypass surgery?), so I didn't see why I was required to attend. I never went back. But this year, I thought the session and demonstration on cooking healthy meals might be interesting.

It was just as well that I couldn't go, though, because when the lady at water aerobics described it, I realized it was the very same program I'd heard at one of the monthly luncheon/health talks at the hospital.

Besides, she said, the sound was so bad in the autditorium that she able to hear about every tenth word. Again, the organizers would not let people leave. They'd darkened the exhibit area, so no one could visit there. "I'm never going back," she said. My sentiments exactly.

Back home, while I had a couple of cups of coffee, Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house. We went right to work setting a pot of chicken stewing...she diced the carrots, onions, and celery for it.

And then we made a batch of pumpkin bars. By this time it was 11:30. So we had lunch, after which I finally went upstairs to get ready for the day.

Back downstairs, I urged Mother to take a nap until time to leave for a visit with our friends. I did this and that during the time she napped, and then around 2:30, she woke up, and a few minutes later, we left to go to our friend's house, taking a half dozen pumpkin bars with us.

We really enjoyed our visit, catching up on each other's lives. Two of us (the younger ones...and we aren't young) have computers, and we e-mail each other from time-to-time, and keep up with each other on our social network sites, but Mother and the hostess are completely computer illiterate, so they must rely on us to relay information to them.

We visited for an hour and a half, during which time, our hostess served flavored coffee, and a choice of refreshements...cheese and crackers, grapes, and cookies.

Funny: when I gave her the pumpkin bars, she jokingly asked if she had to serve them right away. I assured her she did not, that they were for her and our other friend, plus a lady who's staying with the hostess, to have later, because we have a whole pan of the treats at home.

It was drizzling rain when we left, and raining pretty hard by the time we got home. We were hoping to get home before predicted storms arrived, and we did.

As soon as we were home, I finished preparing a pot of Chinese soup, using the stewed chicken, and adding shredded cabbage, chopped green onions from the freezer, and seasonings that included ginger root and soy sauce. In the last few minutes, I added Ramen noodles to the pot. Served the soup with hot biscuits, butter, and honey.

Afterward, I accompanied Mother to her house, and waited until she had showered, before I returned home. Hubbie and I spent the rest of the evening watching TV.

Around 8 p.m., a thunderstorm cropped up, but though there was a tornado watch covering most of the state, including our county, nothing serious came of the storm.