No perch???

Here it is, late Friday night and Manitowoc has rolled up the sidewalks. We did have some excitement, however, causing the youngest among us to scatter into the streets. While Kerry, Alayna, Justin, Mom and I watched "Julie and Julia" rented from the Red Box (Kerry watched with her eyes closed...) I heard the sound of sirens close by, right about the same time I smelled smoke. At first no one else did and then suddenly, the two youngest people ran outside and Kerry not far behind, after we saw the smoke pouring over the parking lot. Mom went to get her shoes on in case we were told to evacuate. I went down the hall, with the phone in my hand, calling Jill on the 2nd floor. She heard the sirens and smelled the smoke, as her scanner reported a structure fire on 12th street. WE are on 12th street!!!

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The young people that ran outside went different directions so they lost sight of Alayna, but Kerry and Justin could see much. It seems there was a fire in an apartment over the typical Manitowoc corner bar, and they even saw a man being taken away in the ambulance. Oh no! Kerry was now wide awake and running up and down the city streets, chasing fire trucks. Once all were back upstairs, they told me I would have hated it out there, due to the cold and blowing snow. It was not a nice night out there at all, and then a fire on top of it all!

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We all had dinner at Time Out, our standard entire family gathering place which accomodates large numbers of people. Mom is not crazy about it because there is noise factor there but it is okay for that period of time. After all, it is a sports' bar. Here is the bad news, I had not had my first taste of perch since getting here and they were out of perch!!! What??? No perch??? How did this happen? Mom and Lynn seemed to believe because we were there 'late' (at 6:30 or so) the perch was sold out. Of course, 6:30 is not late for Justin or me but many of these folks normally eat very early, or much earlier, than do we. I settled for the cod and the waitress assured me she would bring something else if I did not like the cod. It was alright, not wonderful like perch, but alright, and I ate two of the six or seven cubes of cod.

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I should back up a little here----yesterday, Thursday was a lost day for me, the day after the funeral. During the night Wednesday, I woke up to a tugging sensation from inside my tummy, in the vicinty of my belly button. Oh no, again! Before long I was wearing a path in the carpet across the hall to the bathroom, grabbing a Tupperware container to use as an emises basin. Yikes! I was concerned that others who ate the funeral dinner or the soup/sandwich meal at First German were sick, too, but it seems only me who got sick. I cannot recall the last time I was sick in this fashion and it did not please me. The entire day was spent resting and running, so today, extreme caution was taken as far as ingestion was concerned. I had no strength to brush my teeth yesterday, it was all I could do to hold my brush up that long. Today, I accomplished it nicely. Whew! Hopefully that brief illness is behind me!

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I am having troubles with this computer tonight so perhaps I will let it rest and finish the story in the morning, or the afternoon, once I have Justin delivered to the airport. I will torture him by getting him there well before his flight because I am neurotic that way. Someday, he will thank me! Good night, all, and watch for updates!