Tuesday, Aug. 6

We were startled last night when shortly after we went to bed there came a bright flash of lightning, immediately followed by crashing thunder that rattled the windows and shivered the timbers. It felt like it was right on top of the roof. Got the adrenaline up. I thought the storm would continue, but nothing else happened.

We slept late this morning, until around 8 a.m., and then I did stair stepping after breakfast. Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house around 9:30, and she went to her jigsaw puzzle. Then Hubbie ran errands.

Once I was ready for the day, I did this and that until lunch time. After lunch, Mother and I made a batch of Venus grape jelly, using the automatic jelly maker. The jelly maker is doing a great job. It's going to be very useful for making small batches of jelly, though I'll still use the old-fashioned pot-on-the-stove method for some things, like making large batches of strawberry jam, and candy apple jelly.

When the jelly was done, Mother went back to her puzzle, and I relaxed and finished a novel on my e-tablet that I borrowed from the library. It'll be automatically removed from my tablet tomorrow or Thursday.

I was behind in reading newspapers, and only got around to reading the Sunday edition this afternoon, along with Monday's state and local editions, today's editions, and the local weekly paper.

Later, I heated leftovers for supper...mashed potatoes, squash casserole, and fried okra. I made a recipe of white gravy to go with the potatoes. I also boiled ears of corn. Mother sliced cold chicken and garden tomatoes for the meal, and buttered French bread for the oven. It was a very satisfying meal.

Hubbie accompanied Mother home afterward, and then he and I watched TV for the evening, including the 2010 movie, "Red," starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, and Helen Mirrin.

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Speaking of TV, when we tuned to the 10 p.m. news last night, we found the picture squashed up...it was about a foot wide right in the middle of the screen. I wondered if the problem was with our TV, or our cable company. I went upstairs to see if it was happening on the bedroom TV...it was. This morning, Mother said it happened on her TV, too. So obviously, it was a problem of the channel. But it sure was comical looking.

That was two nights in a row that we experienced TV problems...Monday night, the TV seized and wouldn't budge. We tried changing the remote batteries, to no avail. So we just turned it off and went to bed, hoping it would right itself by morning. It didn't, but it occurred to Hubbie to unplug the cable box, wait a few minutes, and then plug it back in. That worked...the box reset itself, and we were in business again.