Thunder on the river

Here I sit, ensconced on the love seat with the laptop warming me, nicely, as I became quite chilled at lunch. After water aerobics today, I met Olivia and Sandy over at The Club. I had arranged for us to dine el fresco due to my being in my swim wear. No sooner had Olivia and I gotten seated and served our sodas than did it start to thunder. The nice waiter said it would be just fine for us to move into the "new room" and sit by ourselves there. Sandy called from Fleming Island saying she was pinned down by lightning at the nursing home where she was visiting her mom, but would be along as soon as she could. Seems she has quite the healthy respect for lightning and wanted to wait until it let up before heading out. We waited, Olivia and I, chatting about the latest news since we last spoke at Justin's birthday party.

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We each had some thing different from the lunch menu, with me passing on the sirloin burger for the tuna salad on croissant and Olivia having grouper on angel hair pasta. Sandy had the Chinese ribs which looked so wonderful, made me hungry for the China Buffet! Olivia's pasta had a wine sauce which caused her to have a flash of being overheated. In hindsight I should have that for lunch because I was getting colder and colder sitting there in my wet swim suit under the A/C vent. It felt so wonderful to be outside after lunch, although the skies were greyer and thunder was still rolling.

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We did get to chat with Lauren, a young lady whom graduated from St. Johns a year after Olivia and Justin. She lives in The Palace and works at The Club during the summers, although part of the time off from school was spent interning for the government in Ireland! Poor thing! She is studying political science and European studies, something which Justin would certainly enjoy as well. Lauren attends Vanderbilt which is not terribly far from where Olivia attends. I think Olivia will graduate this year and has begun contacting graduate schools for her next step toward her career path combining her two majors of engineering and psychology----I just cannot remember what type of engineering degree she will have, it might come to me yet!

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Maggie brought me a DVD to watch based on the life of Cole Porter (imagine that!) so it is playing in the background as I write. The movie is rather, uh, interesting with Porter being, shall we say, a man who swung both ways, and yet had a loving marriage. I am not sure what I make of the movie but the acting and costumes are good. It has a sort of "Great Gatsby" feeling to it. Tomorrow a group of us from The Palace are going to see "Julie and Julia" at the Fleming Island theater and Olivia is planning to join us. I am excited to see it again, and laugh with my friends!

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My arms and shoulders and upper back are truly achy after the workout this a.m. where we used the bar bells the entire class. We did push ups and jumping jacks and other seemingly impossible movements in the water. My punch card shows only one more class for me and I do not intend to sign up again for the organized classes since I can do my version of exercise in the pool on my own. Hopefully Maggie will continue to come over and hang out with me, although technically pool time is drawing to a close. After Labor Day the cabana closes and they have an end of season party to wrap it all up. Nuts! This is not to say that I will cease going down there, it is just that it seems like such a let down when the cabana quits serving our food and drinks....

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Even at this point, the sky remains dark and thunder continues to roll. Last night or rather, early this a.m., we had a tremendous thunder storm complete with rain. Thus far today there has been no rain, at least not around here. The painters still manage to keep busy, today some working on sanding and scraping the old paint from the railings, readying them for the fresh black paint. Last night at the Board Meeting for the condo one of the members asked me if I would serve on the color committee to help decorate the lobby but again, I respectfully declined. There are already enough people on that team, they do not need to thicken the plot. Many members of the Board are ready to be replaced next year and want off. Please do not ask me, please, do not make me say "NO! Thank you" again!