The pictures progress from the time I noticed something weird on the horizon and grabbed the camera, to the point when the cloud had moved all the way over us, and the cold rain started pelting down.  If this works right, you should be able to click on the thumbnail to see a larger version of the picture.

We certainly got it last night. About 18:00, the wind started whipping up, and the EAS broke in on the cable to announce a tornado warning for our entire area.  I made the kids (Matt had his girlfriend over) and dogs go down to the basement, and I stepped out into the yard to see what I could see.  What I saw was a huge mass of clouds, very low in the sky, with cloud-to-ground lightning flashing constantly all around it.  I didn’t actually see any rotation, but I think what I was seeing was a side view of the wall cloud which was causing all the fuss.  It was a couple of miles to the north and west of us, near Keenland and the airport, so as it moved east, all we got was some wind, a little spatter of rain, and a really impressive light show.  The Jessamine County weather sirens went off, too, for maybe the third time ever that I can remember in the 17 years we’ve lived in this house.  We actually live in Fayette County, but the Jessamine County line is literally two blocks from us, and we can hear their weather sirens better than the ones in Fayette. After that little bit of excitement, we all wandered back to our normal places, and ignored the weather for the rest of the evening.

A little after 02:00, I peeked out the kitchen window and saw the trees whipping around again, and lighting off to the west.  I stepped out onto the deck and sat down on one of the wicker chairs to watch the light show (bad idea, the water hides in the wicker, and my butt got soaked).  I had been out for maybe 20 minutes when I heard the wind and rain coming in, FAST.  All of a sudden the treetops started whipping around, and the first giant drop of rain splatted on my arm. In less than a second, the rain had swooped in and was pounding on me.  I jumped up and dashed through the door, back into the safety of the kitchen.  As I turned around and shut the door behind me, I saw headlights coming down the drive.  Larry was home.  He said he’d driven through patches of heavy rain, and patches of no rain at all.  It was weird.

We sat up and watched the storm through the living room windows for an hour or so.  Matt got up and wandered in to sit with us shortly after the storm started.  He said that a tornado had been sighted very near his girlfriend’s house.  He was nervous about her safety, understandably. For at least an hour, the Jessamine County weather sirens sounded every 5 minutes.  Unheard of.  Eventually, the storm died down, and we all settled down for bed.

I was jerked out of a sound sleep at 06:13 by a bolt of lightning striking just outside my window.  The thunderclap was nearly simultaneous. I opened the blind, and settled back to watch the show.  It was a good one.  Eventually, I fell back asleep.

When I finally woke, around 11:00, the sun was weakly peeking through the clouds, though that didn’t last long.  Now, there is heavy cloud cover again, and more severe storms predicted for this afternoon and evening.

I like a good storm as much as the next person, but come on guys, don’t you think this has been quite enough?

In between storms yesterday, I went and got my hair trimmed.  The price of the haircut includes a style, and my stylist loves to play with my hair.  I don’t mind. This time he went a little curl crazy, which is funny, because with all the wind, rain, and humidity, it would have done this all by itself! 

My stylist went a little curl crazy after my haircut.

As with most people, there were good times and bad times, but for now, the good times seem to be in the majority, thank <deity of your choice>.

I can’t seem to stop grinning at their good news, and the fact that I’ve found them once again.

In fact, I’m inspired to start writing on my online journal again (he never would call it a blog, he always called it his ‘online journal’).

How about a picture to start?  Matt is playing Mr. Carnes in the homeschool group’s production of “Oklahoma”.  Here he is in his ‘wedding’ costume (I made the vest and the western-style bow tie, if you can believe it):

Matt's 'wedding' costume.

Larry and I have spent the day playing around, teasing each other.  I got the upper hand, and when we went into the kitchen for drinks, he threatened me playfully with the last piece of Supreme Peanut Butter Pie.  I threatened him with dire consequences, all within our well established household version of the Geneva Convention.  Suddenly, the pie hit me in the side of the face, full force!

Matt had reached up under Larry’s arms and shoved his hands, pushing the pie onto the side of my face, glasses, and hair.

After a moment of shock, I suppressed my laughter and decided to take the high road.  As I regally removed myself from the kitchen, I heard Larry squeak to Matt, “What did you do THAT for?!?”

Matt squeaked back, “But… you looked like you wanted to do it so badly!”

I will mention that it’s orientation time at Transy this weekend, so I’ll be gone all day tomorrow, and Rob will be gone for the next three days.  Thankfully, the parents get to go home Saturday afternoon, while the kids hang out and do whatever it is new college kids do on campus by themselves after their parents go home. 

I do have to take Rob over in the mornings, and pick him up in the afternoons, but I think I can handle that, since I don’t have to hang out the whole time, other than Saturday.  It will get us in shape for the daily morning/afternoon runs all week, which start on Tuesday.

Matt will be starting his core classes on Tuesday, too.  Algebra, Literature, KY history, and Civic/Economics.  Latin II starts on Wednesday.  He started his electives two weeks ago, but those classes are so much fun, I don’t think he really thinks of them as “school”.  We really need to start getting mentally prepared for Tuesday, we’re both still wearing our summer brains!

Anyway, off to clean the kitchen, prepare the crock-pot roast for tomorrow, and hopefully get to bed at a relatively reasonable hour.

I was right.  So far, it’s been fun!  I like the director, and the kids are all terrific.  I like the music the director has picked out, and the dances, her specialty, are cute and appropriate for the music and the age group.

There is one song, the anchor song of the whole show, that is totally musical.  The dance bits will have solos, and the chorus is mostly dancing and ooohhh-ing or woah-ing in the background.  So this one song will sort of showcase the music.  The director has put me in charge of this song, which is fine.  But, my mind takes over and starts thinking of ways to improve the music, and make it simpler for whoever the girls are who are going to be singing it.  None of them read music, and the arrangement the director has chosen is complicated, which is what makes it so beautiful, but it could be difficult for the girls to pick out the separate parts.  So, I thought I’d listen through it, and write out the parts.  Even someone who can’t read music can follow along with the notes.

I found a free trial music writing software on the internet, which has made this activity less stressful.  I’ve about decided to go ahead and buy it, it’s only $10, because there have been other times when I wished I’d had something like that.

It’s time consuming, because I have to listen to the song (which changes key at least 4 times), play the notes on the keyboard to confirm the key, then go over each part multiple times to get the parts typed into the program.

It’s actually been fun working on it, and digging around remembering my music theory.  It’s a part of my brain I haven’t used for several years, so it’s nice dusting the cobwebs off. 

Last night I was working on the most difficult section of the song.  The key changes from major to minor in the middle of one verse, and the harmonies become dissonant.  It is a beautiful and moving verse, but somewhat difficult to separate into parts and get on (virtual) paper.  I pushed through, finished that difficult verse, got the change back from minor to major in the next verse, and got the chorus, which is done as a round, all written out.

After all that, I was kind of burned out, so I stopped work.  I saved my file, and without closing the program, moved on to other things on the computer.

As I was closing the computer down, I realized the music writing program was still open.  I shut it down, and selected “Save All”, just in case.  What I didn’t realize was I had somehow gotten two copies of the file open when I started.  I had one file I was working in, and the other was still as it was when I started.  When the program “Saved All”, it closed them in the order they were open, so it closed my working file first, then saved the original file over the work file, because they had the same name.  So all that work I did was lost.  Gone.  Poof.

I was a little bit upset.  <ahem>

There is a little bit of good news.  At one point I decided to transpose the alto part up an octave to make it easier to read, and saved the file with a new name just in case I messed it all up.  Then I transposed the alto part, and pasted it into my working file.

That means I have the first verse intact with all three parts, instead of just one part of one verse, so I don’t have to start over from the very beginning, just from the middle.

<sigh>

I like browsing.  I like going to the stores with my hubby, and wandering up and down the aisles, looking at stuff.  “Oohhh, wouldn’t that be nice in the bedroom?”  “Wow, I like those coffee mugs.” “Look at that picture, it’s beautiful!”  Usually we don’t buy, we just look.

I hate shopping.  That trip you make specifically to get something, be it clothes, shoes, or food.  I try to make grocery shopping a quick, thoughtless process, by making a menu for the week, then making a list.  Once at the store, I just go down the list.  I don’t think, I don’t look, I don’t browse.  Get in, get it, get out.

Unfortunately, not everyone does this.  It seems that no matter what time of day I go, there is a disadvantage.  Because of our night-shift schedule, I can’t usually get myself together to go any earlier than 15:00, but you don’t want to go then, because that’s when busy Moms who have just picked up their school-aged kids are there.  These are not happy children either, my friends.  These are hungry, grouchy, excitable children who have been trapped in the child’s version of prison since 7:30.  No way in HELL I’m going to the store then.

Between 16:30 and 18:00, the Dads and career Moms are there with their lists from their spouses, bombing up and down the aisles with no regard for anyone else.  God forbid you actually have the gall to step out of an aisle in front of them.  The fact you couldn’t see them because they weren’t there a second ago, and they are going 50 mph down the main drag pushing a wobbly cart, and looking everywhere but in front of them doesn’t occur to them, they’re just mad because you impeded their progress.

From 18:00 until around 21:00 the families with two working spouses and young kids are there.  Or they’re single Moms or Dads, with their kids.   These kids are REALLY hungry because they’ve been at day care since school got out, and they spend the whole time screaming and running up and down the aisles while Mom and/or Dad shouts, “Stop it, stop it, stop it, I mean it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, if you want doughnuts you’ll stop it, stop it, stop it, do I need to put you in this cart? then stop it, stop it, stop it, ok you’re going straight to bed when we get home, then stop it stop it stop it!”  I swear, I almost slapped that woman today.

If you go much later than 21:00, (I discovered a week ago, much to my chagrin) they’ve closed all the lanes except the self-check lanes, and if you’ve got a week’s worth of groceries, that can take for-bloody-ever.  Not to mention the fact the little bagging area is only big enough for 3 bags, and a week’s worth of groceries for us is a minimum of 5 bags plus 2 gallons of milk, plus dog food, plus cat food, plus toilet paper, plus paper towels.  Just try to get all that stacked on that little bagging scale, I dare you.

THEN…. when you finally get the shopping done, and you’re in the check out line, you either get the “special needs” person they hired to fill their quota, or the teenager who wants a paycheck but resents having to do actual work for it.  Today, the angst-ridden, gum-chewing, hair-flipping, walking estrogen patch glared daggers at me as she put the four-pound roast and four jars of peanut butter on TOP of the pound and a half of fresh mushrooms.  Now they are squashed-rooms.  <sigh>

I hate shopping.

This summer has gone by in a flash. It has been dreadfully hot.  Last year was so mild, I got spoiled sitting out in the cool breeze every morning.  Not this year.  When it’s already 85° when I get up, I do not sit out on the deck!  And when it’s 95° or more in the afternoons, I don’t go outside at all.  Today is nice though.  A cold front came through this past weekend and dumped quite a bit of rain, which we needed, and dropped the temperature.  Right now it’s a little past 13:00, and it’s only 81°.  I may take this opportunity to wash the dogs again.  Larry says they smell bad, though I can’t smell it at all, and they just had baths a week ago.

Larry’s work is still the same ol’ same ol’.  The work would be just fine if the managers would quit managing.  Oh, well.  That’s how it goes.

I’ve gotten Matt’s school work all prepared.  All we have to do is open it up and get started, but neither one of us is mentally prepared for that, so we’re waiting until the week of Labor Day.  He has a new girlfriend, who actually lives near enough to date.  That’s nice, except he keeps running his dad out of gas!  She’s started school already, so I’m sure in a couple of weeks, he’ll be ready to get going too.

Rob is enrolled at Transylvania University now.  He is majoring in Computer Science.  Classes start on Tuesday, September 7th, but he has to be on campus all weekend for new student orientation.  Because he’s living at home, and not on campus, that means I have to drive him downtown at 8:30, so he can be there ready to go at 9:00, Saturday and Monday.  Sunday he doesn’t have to be there until 11:00.  It sounds like it will be fun, there are a lot of student activities, along with the obligatory purchasing of books, yearbook photos, meetings with the student orientation leader and faculty adviser, and free food.    Three days a week he has an 8:30 class.  That means driving downtown during morning rush hour.  We’ll have to leave the house by 7:30 at the latest to get there on time.  <sigh>  Up at 7:00?!?  In the MORNING?!?  I can do it, but I won’t enjoy it.

The critters are all well.  Angel got her semi annual shave down last week, and though she looks silly, she is SO happy!  She’s been inviting the other dogs to play, and chasing toys.  She likes being naked.  The other girls have been driving us crazy bringing us toys to throw for them.  It’s been so hot I haven’t gotten them out for a daily run like they’re used to.  We’ll get back to that this fall, if it ever cools down!  Sorry, no pictures today.  Maybe I’ll set aside some time later this evening and post some separately.

Nine, count them NINE mosquito bites. And that was just in the 30 minutes or so it took me to realize I'd forgotten the bug spray.

Now, just in case you can’t see them, I’ll highlight them…

Nine, see? And that's just the ones you can see in the picture, on that one leg. Believe me, there are more, many more, you can't see.