"We got cows!"

My sister, Lynn, loves this line from the movie "Twister" as the estranged couple chases tornadoes all over the place. This line reports seeing a cow go flying by their truck. I am watching for sea cows to go flying past my windows here as the wind is just absolutely crazy out there, whistling in my windows and ruffling papers on my ledge! My inside sun catchers are spinning from the breeze making its way past my Kinco windows. There is occasional lightning and some rain, but holy cow!, it is windy as blazes out there! I read on-line that the gusts were up to 50 miles per hour and this might let up by 7:00 pm.....makes for sort of a long day, listening to the wind whistle. A squirrel was hanging on for dear life to the palm tree outside my window but eventually made his way down to the ground. I would not have climbed up there in the first place in this wind....or ever, for that matter!

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Yesterday afternoon I heard the A/C kick in here and immediately I dashed to turn the thermostat to the OFF position. No need for cool air or heat that day, but some heat today would be nice. I can feel the cold breeze on my arms, where the sun normally shines, making me rethink my decision to wear short sleeves today. I am so glad it is not snowing because this would be one ginormous blizzard! The radio weather guy just referred to this as "significant weather"----really?

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JEA is reporting power outages in the area as trees are falling onto the power lines. I may be forced to get my battery TV out to use if we lose electricity. My cell phone is powered up after being on the charger all night and I can always recharge it in my car if need be. I have a battery-powered laptop too but it has a very short life. If I lived on Gilligan's Island, I could figure out a way to charge up the computer using my exercise bike as the generator. Or was that guy who used gum wrappers and paper clips to make explosives???

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Justin should be in class today, and I hope UNF has electricity out there on the Southside. I believe next week he is working on his finals and then is taking some time off to travel south to celebrate the birthday of his friend in Miami. The boy's parents are supposedly going down, too, which makes me feel a bit better about the whole thing. Oh, you can tell me 100 times that he is an adult and a grown man and can take care of himself---go on, I dare you!! You do this at your own risk........

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This weekend is my friend, Kathy, daughter's wedding with Justin as my date for this. Our friend from church, a retired Air Force man, Brian, is doing the honor of escorting Kelly down the aisle, wearing his dress uniform and I cannot wait to see how handsome he is going to be. Kelly and her fiance were here for the Super Bowl party and has come on occasion to G. S. for worship with her mom. I feel as though I know her quite well already through Kathy talking about her as well as visiting with Kelly on Facebook! No secrets anymore if you post it on Facebook!

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This summer our building is due to be caulked, stucco repaired, and sealed which will hopefully eliminate or greatly reduce the leaking that remains to be a problem, despite having the roof replaced. All the windows and openings will be caulked from the outside which may also help with some of the air and water infiltration problems. The windows I have are quality and my nice window man did not recommend replacing them when I did the sliding glass doors. A less scrupulous sales man would have sold me new windows no matter the condition of the existing ones.

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If I see a boat or other river vessel out there, I would seriously question their wisdom. Sunday night, Easter, there was a terrible, horrendous boat accident further south of here, with five people killed immediately and nine injured. The boat they were in, way too small for that many people, rammed a parked tug boat as they traveled at a high rate of speed. One person has been released from the hospital but some of the injured remain in ICU at a couple area trauma centers. One of those killed, a woman in her 40's, lives on the same street as the Douglases and has a young child at home. Tragic! Not surprisingly alcohol was involved although no one has yet made the determination as to whom was actually at the wheel of the boat. The boat was only a little bigger than my mine was, and had wwaayy too many people aboard for safety purposes. How they managed to get up enough speed is beyond me. I hope no more of the boaters die, there were enough killed, too many, when they hit the tug. Prayers for the families of those killed or hurt go up to the Lord on their behalf.