Thursday, June 5

Up at 7:30, and did stair stepping, resistance band, and leg weights exercises after breakfast. Showered while Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house.

Before I dressed for the day, I tried on a couple of outfits for upcoming events. One was the mint green tank top/lacy blouse over a pair of white slacks. It'll do for attending the baptism and get-together for triplets, the grandchildren of friends of ours this Saturday.

The other outfit is a tank top/sheer blouse combination in a darker green with small print flowers. It has three-quarter length sleeves with elastic, and elastic at the bottom hem for a snug fit at the hips. The gathered neckline also has elastic, and three-button detail down the front. I plan to wear this over white roll-up crop pants, for the Summer Celebration, sponsored by the arts council. This event will be a week from today.

That's the problem with living in a small town...ladies can't wear the same thing to the same event two years in a row, or wear the same outfit to two consecutive events, because the same women attend all the same events.

Men, on the other hand, can wear similar outfits to all the events...a knit shirt and khaki slacks. Lucky men.

Spent the rest of the morning doing this and that until lunchtime. Mother had her usual lunch, while Hubbie microwaved burritos. I had difficulty finding something to munch on, but finally settled on a dish of salad tomatoes topped with the remainder of some cottage cheese, and a couple of pieces of toast.

We weren't long done with our lunch when a thunderstorm rolled in. Hubbie had brought out the battery-operated camp lamp when the sky began darkening, so it was handy when the lights flickered several times and then finally went out.

I should have thought to put the lamp on the end table, though, because I had to stumble through the den to the bar to retrieve it when it became dark as night outside. The storm brought strong winds that blew some limbs down in the yard, and bent the plants in the veggie gardens eastward. Lightning and crashing thunder startled the cats, who clustered near us for protection. An inch and half of rain fell, flooding the yard. A power outage lasted a couple of hours. Other than these small inconveniences, nothing else happened at our house.

We kept the radio on during the storm, and at one point, there was an announcement that some daycare centers were closing early and parents should immediately pick up their kids, and there was an event cancellation for this evening. Later, Sis posted a photo from a news station showing that the fountain at the college where I swim had overflowed, and a tree limb was in the water. I don't know if there was other damage in town.

Towns in counties east of us, though, suffered damages, and power outages, and worse, a couple of people were killed when trees fell on a home and on a car. A four-wheeler was tossed into the upper part of a garage, where it stuck. Railroad cars were blown off the track in one town. A small airplane was tossed in the wind and crashed upside down at an airport.

While the storm raged, Mother and Hubbie nodded off. I read the newspaper, and then decided that since the power was off, I'd clean the TV screen.

The power returned shortly after 2 p.m. A few minutes later, the power company called to inform us that the power had returned, they didn't know what had caused the problem, and they regretted the inconvenience.

Later, for supper, I cooked macaroni and added leftover spaghetti sauce to it. We had this with a side of green beans and salad tomatoes, and bread and butter. Not long afterward, Mother was ready to go home, so Hubbie accompanied her.

Then he and I watched movies from the library. The first one was "What Lies Beneath." We've seen this year 2000 movie, starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pheiffer before, but it has been a while, so we'd forgotten the plot revolving a well-to-do couple who experience a haunting and learn something about the past. Very jump-out-at-you suspenseful.