One or two lonely boats

As the rain comes rolling across the river from Mandarin, the third or fourth shower today, two smalls boats are bobbing in the water, its fishers most likely bracing for yet another soaking. One vessel is straight out from my window while the other just down from the basin, neither incredibly far from land. The rains have been soft in nature, not the pounding drops that hurt when they hit. Unless, of course, if one were on a jet ski, and trying to outrun the rain. That stings like crazy when it hits the body, like insect bites all over the face, arms and exposed body. It has been a long time since I experienced that but the painful memory is fresh enough!

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Due to the inclement weather I decided to not go downstairs for water aerobics, which I wonder are taking place at all. Nope, there are no people in the pool and now, of course, the sun is peeking out. If there is a rainbow, I cannot see it. The shuttle launch was scuttled once more, and I say that is what they get for scheduling it in the middle of the night anyway! This time was a leaking valve so it is good to stop the count down until all mechanicals are in good working order. Tomorrow at 12:22 a.m. is the next attempt so I might be up to watch it. Especially if I take another 5-6 hour nap like I did two weeks ago!

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Maggie O. is staying at Ellen's off and on to help take care of the pets while she is away, and this late afternoon friend Michelle will be returning from the hospital to also stay at Ellen's. She broke her leg and needs to be in a living situation without steps to deal with. I called our neighbor, Patti, to see if she has an extra wheel chair that Michelle can borrow to get herself from the car to the condo so Maggie is going to get that chair from Patti when the time comes. We are blessed here with such great neighbors!

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Maggie was leaving here when I came home from choir rehearsal last evening and I hollered for her to come to my place on the way out so I could give her the frozen yogurt I had bought by mistake. Justin figured it was Joanne's because I would not buy this normally. We each had a bowl of it, and he liked it, I did not. He did not want the yogurt, though, so I offered the carton to Maggie, who loves frozen yogurt. My favorite flavor, too---Mint Chocolate Chip. I also returned a borrowed movie to Maggie, the one about Cole Porter.

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Speaking of movies, Dee and I, we discovered separately, have been growing our library of DVDs recently. She and I compared notes at lunch the other day and are going to share with each other. Martie and I are going to have movie night or movie day, shooting for at least once a week which will also be great fun. Many of my friends are out of work, or have reduced funds due to cutbacks so it is no problem to come up here, for free, to watch movies instead of going to dinner and a movie.....I can cook! The one I am so looking forward to watching is called "Grey Gardens", an HBO movie about the eccentric relatives of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. It was recommended to me by the waitress at Aron's Pizza who just raved about it. It stars Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange and looks pretty cute. I must get some popcorn!

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Dee likes the period movies such as "The Duchess", "The Queen" and "The Other Boleyn Sister", plus she likes romantic comedies. Some of those are part of my collection, the comedies, plus a couple not so comedic, like "Kramer vs. Kramer" and "Ordinary People". That might be a good one to watch alone since it such a tear jerker. I am wishing I had saved some of those address labels to mark my DVD boxes with so I do not forget to whom I loaned them. Dee, I believe, has "27 Dresses" which is good one to watch with a group, ooohhh, I am getting so excited about this!!!! She said she watches her movies after 11:00 pm so we cannot count her in on the movie nights, and she does not do other things while viewing, while I must. I explained to her that I had a hard time at the movies because I like to do more than one thing at once, such as look at a catalog, sort mail, or use the computer. Baby steps, baby steps.....

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When I was talking with Suzanne this a.m., who just got offered and accepted a new job, I saw Brillion, WI on Fox News. The reporter was talking to a man and the caption read: Snow throwers are bread and butter of Ariens Company. I do not know what the big story was because my attention was elsewhere but I did see Brillion and snow throwers! Not snow blowers, throwers. Speaking of which, it is now thundering and lightning, no more sun peeking through. Rumor has it this will be the fate today, storms coming and going, which might mean no to our outing tonight with The Palace peoples.

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When Wally came to get the yet sick laptop from me yesterday, I told him how I had to again manually turn off the computer after waiting more than an hour for it to go through its shutdown process. He said that turning computers off and on is the hardest on a machine than anything else we do and so if I can leave it powered up all the time, with sufficient circulation, it should be fine. It seems to be a waste of electricity to leave it on but if that is what it takes to keep it alive, its life support, as it were, I will do it! Not the desk top, however, because it sounds like a jet engine when it runs due its large fan, and I would not tolerate that racket if I am not using it. I have a thing about noises sometimes.