Starting my day off with a bang!!!

About 9:00 a.m. this morning our part of the world was rocked by the landing of the space shuttle, Discovery, announcing its return with a thunderous double sonic boom. The countdown clock showed it was still several minutes from touchdown but it must have been running ahead of schedule. On Fox News they were showing its arrival path, coming in from the west so standing in my river room to watch was futile. I decided to get back on the bed with the laptop and just as I was settling in, "BOOM! BOOM!", came the announcement of its return.

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No sooner was I getting settled in did my phone go off, with Justin excitedly asking if I heard the sonic boom. I was still wiping a tear from the corner of my eye when he called, and I told him about that. He said, "You're just like Glenn!". Some of the readers will know what that means, and it is dear. He said he called his friend, Ron, first, to find out if he heard it, and just as Ron answered did he hear the boom. It took a while for the sound to move south and east, it seems. Even though I knew it was coming, it was still a stunner when it happened, like me wondering if Jessica upstairs is tossing her washer around the house!

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Today is my day for Kindergarten and I am so looking forward to it. We are going to plant our tiny flowers which I picked up last week from the dollar bin at Target. I hope and pray they will sprout and grow, eventually, and I dread the thought of one or two of theirs not coming up. It might serve as a good learning experience. They can choose from the two different flowers making it their decision and their responsibility to tend the plants, if they come up! We will also play with the little fuzzy play balls I bought from the dollar bin, instead of the football like last week. I wonder if they played with it during the week and perhaps got the hang of it...

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While I was talking with Justin, I had another call come in so I told Justin I would call him back. It was Jeff from downstairs and I thought he was calling to see I caused the sonic boom--ha! He actually was calling with some information for the newsletter for The Palace to make sure all the names are mentioned regarding certain donations. We certainly do not want hurt feelings or anything---just like the kindergarteners! When done with Jeff, I called Justin back and was chatting with him when I heard his doorbell ring. He said he had to go and would call me back later. Fine with me...we were playing tag now and he is IT! A few moments later he sent me a chat on gmail to say he would call me later after his test. I explained that I had school and church work today, before going to the movies and dinner with Twila and Judy J. We are going to see "The Last Song", which is the book I am reading in my spare time. I am a little more than halfway through the book so it won't be a deal breaker for me if I see the movie. My reading friends would finish that book by late afternoon but I will not, and I do not apologize for it either. I do look forward to going onto the next read which is the true story of a man growing up in Manitowoc County. Fiction is simply not my forte, I do so much better with current events or non-fiction reading.

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When I showed Judy and Twila the books purchased at the St. Margaret's Fair, my little Marine tried to tell me that I should read the other books in the trilogy by this author, mostly about St. Augustine and such. Really, some day I might, but right now I am interested in the story of Fleming Island and its history. I do not mind reading them out of order at all. Twila stepped in to say that this book about Margaret Fleming was purchased at the St. Margaret's Fair on Margaret Fleming's property.......see? Thanks, Twila!

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I have exposed my tender finger which seems to be on the mend. I can now bend my pointer without the feeling of it exploding upon contact. All the remedies seem to be at work on the infection, and I will not discount the value of the 'old' penicillin scrip I am taking. Even though it is old, it might still have some fight in it against the infection! When I go out later, I will apply the anti-biotic ointment and a bandage to protect it against flying balls and the dirt in the flower pots.

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While I am complaining or mentioning, rather, my sore finger, my dear friend, Joanne, is sick in the hospital. Again. She never gets a little bit sick, she gets big sick. Saturday night we chatted on-line briefly and she reported having a terribly sore throat which she attributed to her being so exhausted. This was about 10:30 pm so I told her to go to bed and get some sleep. The next day while I was in church, my friend, Christine, who is a real estate partner with Joanne, left me a message about her being in the hospital. It seems that Jo could barely swallow and a CT scan showed a mass in her throat. This is never good and it frightened us both. Christine was wondering about getting Jo's sister to come down from Atlanta to sign paperwork or what have you in case Joanne could not and had put in a call to Toni. It turned out the mass was an infection which was being treated with antibiotics plus anti-inflammatories. I 'spoke' with Jo yesterday on-line and she said she did not want visitors, she cannot talk because it hurts like crazy without talking. I hope the treatment starts to work soon. Toni was coming in yesterday a.m. to manage the health and treatment for Joanne. I offered to lend whatever aid I could to Christine with the real estate work and I hope she lets me know if she needs help with something. Keep Joanne in your thoughts and prayers, please, for a full recovery from this malady.