As if you haven't seen enough pictures.......

These photos basically speak for themselves as the funnel grows, fades, drops water, gathers it, and reforms into a cylinder shape.....

This is really so cool, and the good news is that there was no damage other than some power outages for a bit....The neighboring building is shown in this photo.

The staff from The Club gathered on our bulkhead to watch the tornado....the bosses must have been gone for the day or they would never have gotten away with this! Notice the flag being whipped by the wind? We even had "surfing" waves on the river but only for a very brief time. The water tower at the Navy base is on the right side of the picture. Traffic on the bridge continued though many pulled over to watch/take pictures, or like my friend, Linda did, went to the base to find a better view of the whole thing!

What an exciting day we had Friday!!!

http://wokv.com/slideshow/thumbs/funnel-cloud (click on this link to see photos)

Some of these photos are taken looking south down the river toward Orange Park, in fact, in a few you can pick out the water tower at NAS Jax.

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Early Friday morning I spent some time chatting with Joanne about a few things and then got myself ready for the day. My hair really needed the shower more than my body did because I have been in the pool daily all week, but my hair gets gunky from the product and the pool water. Sometimes it feels almost like plastic in my hair from being in the pool and out again. Recently I have simply been putting the swimsuit on right away instead of getting dressed first but Friday, I was on a mission!

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Upon finishing the Flock Talk and getting it sent off, I headed to the Island to do some banking and other errands before going over to see Julia at Great Hang Ups. Justin had helped me get some art supplies out of the closet in his room a few weeks ago and found a couple finished pieces that he claimed needed to be framed. So I took them up to Julia for framing and since I was right next door to Koko's...................Yummy! When I arrived at the shop, our shared friend, Sonya, was there with more jewelry for consignment, and I bought a piece to give Martie for her birthday. Shhh, do not tell her!

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After spending much time with Julia and her niece, Maggie, I came back home for a bit. Since I was going away in the evening, I decided to take a rest so I could stay up late. As I rested, I returned a phone call from Ellen, my upstairs neighbor, as we laid out timing for the evening. Originally we were meeting some other ladies at The Loop at San Marco for dinner but Ellen had made a mistake of the start time of the play. Only off by an hour...so what? While we were plotting our departure, she all of a sudden shrieked, and the phone went quiet. I figured she just got a call from someone she had not heard from in a long time.....

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In a minute, she called back, asking me if I saw the cloud "like in 'The Wizard of Oz'", and told me to go to the window. She has a different orientation than mine, where I look at Mandarin, she looks toward downtown. I did not see anything so I said I would come up there. Sure enough!!! There was a funnel cloud, more like a tampon string, as Ellen described it. Well, okay.....It was more straight up and down, less 'funnel' shaped than a tornado would be. She had the TV on and they also had live footage of this tornado/water spout that was dancing in the river. Some were reporting penny-sized hail and branches down but it never got to us, never got beyond the Buckmann Bridge. The river had waves like at the ocean but only briefly. We were just running window to window, like the dogs were, having the presence of mind to call our neighbor whose hubby is in a wheel chair to caution her about seeking shelter. Not us! Oh, no, we are standing in her river room, surrounded on three sides by glass doors!

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After all the commotion and drama had died down, we realized that the area where we were going was most likely underwater, as San Marco is known for its frequent street flooding. We changed our plans and agreed to meet Maggie O. and her friend at 'our' Loop on Wells Road instead, especially since we were not really ready to go yet! In a few minutes we transformed ourselves and had our dinner before heading to the play. It was called "Into the Woods", a take-off on children's nursery rhymes. Maggie O. is a retired drama and voice teacher so this was surely her element, with her friend, Pat, also a teacher. Maggie had performed and spent time in this theater for countless years, either performing or working behind the scenes. This is an untapped resources, at least by me, and Theater Jacksonville is going on its 90th year! Do I hear church field trip???

Another "manatee" on the river!!!

Here I am, kickin' back and enjoying the party on the sundeck Thursday night. Hugh took the photo and sent it to me, saying that the photographer never gets a picture of themselves! It appears I am having a great time......

A good time was had by all!

Yesterday morning was our water aerobics class. Maggie O. came this time but her friend, our friend, Ellen, was feeling too sunburned to come down to participate. She really got scorched on her first day out in the elements Tuesday. I should have watched her more closely as we sat and talked for hours and hours in the sun!

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When the class was over, one of the ladies, Lonnie, invited me to have lunch with her friend and her at The Club. Phyllis lives in the Capri which is the building next to mine and was walking over to meet us. Of course, I said I would but cannot go into the dining room in my swimsuit. Lonnie had pulled a long dress on over her clothes so would have met dress code. She suggested to Phyllis that we dine poolside, as Ellen and I had done Tuesday, but when Phyllis came back with the menus, she said she would prefer not to eat from the foam "to-go" box. Instead, the hostess set up a table on the patio just outside the addition to The Club, complete with table cloth, flowers, the works, just for us!

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An aside: as I look across the river at the approaching storm complete with lightning, I see the boat that looks exactly like mine dashing toward "home" before the storm comes on full force. I miss my boat, do not miss owning it, but miss riding in it! "Sittin' Pretty" was my boats' name, wonder if that is it....

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Back to lunch: Lonnie wanted me to meet her friend, thinking we would have much in common, and I guess we did. Other than being neighbors, she is friends with one of the ladies in my building, considers herself a frustrated editor, and was just a delight. Both ladies are substantially older than I am but it really does not matter. They laughed at my menu choice however, as I played "stump the waitress" by asking for a hot dog again. She looked at me like I ordered something quite exotic instead of something so low brow. I told her I had it on Tuesday so she went to check, reporting back that indeed, I could have a grilled hot dog! The other ladies had regular menu items while I ate one of the two dogs they brought me and some of the fries. It was great fun to chat with these ladies and appreciated being made part of their little circle!

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After lunch I came upstairs and exchanged my swim clothes for my nightie since I did not want to get re-dressed right away. It is hard to get clothes on after being in a swimsuit most of the day, what can I say??? The afternoon was spent working on the church newsletter which will be an abbreviated version of its usually longer form due to the fact that little is taking place around church during the summer months, particularly since Pastor and family are on vacation. Today it is finished and was e-mailed to the recipients forthwith!

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This evening I am attending a play with Maggie O. and Ellen in San Marco called "Into the Woods", a take-off on children's nursery rhymes. Joanne's dad has seen it and found it quite amusing. I am looking forward to it, especially spending time with my friends!

Oh, like you don't know what I am going to talk about today....

The Cap and Trade Agreement! The Congress of the United States is set to vote on this important, life-changing, probably life-damaging policy change and hardly anyone is aware of it. Why? Because a couple more entertainers died, that's why. Nero is fiddling again and the policymakers rejoice, enjoying the accidental distraction from the business of the country. And we thought a romantic jaunt to Argentina was enough of a distraction---not so much! I used to think how "lucky" it was for Gary Condit when the terrorists attacked us on our shores in 2001, because he was under the microscope for the death of Chandra Levy. Whew! That was close! Guess it turned out that another man was arrested for the murder but at the time, man, for sure, Condit was the guy!

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I have had the national "news" on since about 6:00 a.m. and now they are finally showing something that is real news. Not good news, but worthy of the title nonetheless. What I find amusing about the Michael Jackson story is when photos are shown of him as a young black child from Gary, IN and his "evolutionary" process into a lovely young white female at the age of 50...and no one finds this odd? Of course they do! But now, little will be said about the child molestation charges, the wildly eccentric behaviors, money flushed down the toilet, so to speak, these children he's harvested as his own....Even Geraldo Rivera was telling this a.m. about his last interview with him/her a few years ago, about Jackson's having a piece of tape across what was left of his nose after numerous surgeries had compromised its position on his face. The more an aberration a person is, the more popular they become....I must be getting old and crotchety!

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On a "lighter" note, the sun is nicely warming my chubby arm as I write. In a few minutes I expect Justin to be here for a very important task, or two----soda delivery and a closing! A closing? Yes, here's the story: Yesterday a.m. our maintenance person, Connie, came to the door to get my keys so she could move my car away from the building. Some workers had to park their equipment in my spot so I gave her the keys, saving me from getting dressed first to do so. When she came back up, Connie told me about the screens having to come out of the front windows for the painter. I said I would ask Justin to do it, but she took a look at them, saw they were in the window backward, and pulled them off. Just like that! I had never messed with the screens or windows in those secondary rooms so the screens must have been reversed (pull tabs on the exterior vs. interior) since I moved in. In this process, however, we saw that one of these high windows was open a bit, about an inch or so. Neither of us could budge it from outside so I tried from inside the room, although I had little leverage from the angle I was at. I did what I do best in these situations and that was to contact Justin to come close it for me!

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He was too busy yesterday pulling weeds at the office because someone was coming to look at office space, so he offered to come first thing this a.m. At first I said I would try again but he insisted I just leave it for him, since there was a computer desk and Christmas boxes to be worked around in order to access the window. We just wonder how long it has been opened like that, and who was able to reach over all the junque to open it. No one could have gotten in to rob or hurt us here, as the metal bars are in the windows but a snake or other creatures, or even cold could get in around the misshapen screen. Oh, yeah, and heat.....

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My tummy is grumbling this a.m. probably because I did not really have supper last night. Our building had a social event called "Instead 'a Dinner" which fortunately was not rained out by a tropical storm like last year's was! Or moved upstairs, like we did when Lisa, Lynn and family was here. It was well attended, great food and company, but sadly, only our same group of people came. These events were intended to help bond people, unite, mollify, whatever, but inevitably it is the same people who attend these events, even the nightly ones, who came last night. We all donated assorted appetizers for our entree and I brought my formerly 'fresh-out-of-the-cow' cheese curds. Being such a picky eater (can't tell by looking at me!) I did not overdo it at the table. Not a big fan of humus or freeze-dried green beans or whatever the heck those things were! Hugh took the remainder of the cheese curds home with him to finish for breakfast---if they lasted that long! He loves 'em!

Here are the early arrivers at the "Instead 'a Dinner" event on the sundeck last night. Jack in the wheelchair, Mustafa walking with wine glass, Karen and Maureen along the wall, and Hugh's back toward me. The pools are in the background with people still swimming because it was such a lovely evening.

Jeff is seen here chatting with Connie, our maintenance lady, and Ellen, whose glass I lust after! She made a pan of chocolate rice krispie treats just for me but I shared with the entire group. One of the girls who came later had never had one before....imagine!!

Is that a lobster or is that your nose?

Another gorgeous day on the river! It is simply sparkling with only a few smaller boats dotting the water at present. Certainly as the day gets older we will see more activity but for now, it is 'shhhhh'.....Yesterday afternoon I caught a glimpse, and a photo, of a manatee outside my window. The manatee is just barely visible above the water, in front of the concrete barriers.

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Soon I will be donning my swimwear and heading to the pool for water aerobics, today using the dumb bells for the workout. No comment, please....Wait, I take that back---I want comments!!! We have a smaller number in our group this season most likely due to the time of day it is being conducted, right in the middle of a working person's day! For those of us not employed, it is perfect timing.

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Tuesday Ellen and I enjoyed poolside dining courtesy of The Club, who had waiters deliver food to us when we called in our order. Another lady used my phone to order a cold beer for herself. That's what they get for not having the cabana open week days! Last night Ellen and I went to The Club for appetizers and refreshments, and found the place swarming with people. Randy, one of the men in our aerobics class, served as our unofficial host. He kept wanting me to sing with the piano player but that was out of the question---really. After all, people were trying to eat!

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Ellen said she would not mind having dinner there, since the appetizers were meager, so the hostess got us a table. Once seated, the waiter handed us a single piece of paper for the menu, which included nothing but lobster! The entire lobster!! Well, neither of us wanted that (thank you, Ellen!!!) so we were quite embarrassed and asked to have ourselves excused, after having only unfolded the napkins at the table. The hostess was most gracious about the whole event and we tippy toed out the side door....Randy walked with us, as his wife was at the pool doing her laps. She still works so can't come to class with us in the a.m. Ellen made us all chuckle when she said, "I've been kicked out of nicer places....", as though we were shown the door. Guess we will have to read our Club newsletter a bit more closely from now on!

..."to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope."

"It is going to be Ephesus-hot today!" These are the words my friend, Judy R., offered me yesterday about their temperatures in eastern MN, and she made me bust out laughing! On this page, in my profile, I mention loving being hot, but stop short of saying I cannot be too hot, since our shared visit to Ephesus--- +115 degrees in 2007! That is what Judy was referencing. Whoo, that was a hot hot day, like when you open the oven door and get a blast in the face. So hot it makes your jewelry burn your neck! It is appropriate to add how after our traveling group had cooled sufficiently on the air conditioned bus, we went to buy leather jackets and coats! It was the heat that made me buy that red coat, I swear it!

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Ellen told me yesterday that Billy loved my coat, and I told her I wore it to the funeral in his honor!

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The north end of my building has been pressure cleaned, sealed, caulked and is now being painted. The color selected was not the one I liked but, being a big-picture girl, I really do not care all that much. If left to me, I would have had it looking somewhat "Miami Beach-ish" or something more lively but I suppose we have to sort of blend with our surroundings. Regardless of the color, the building looking and feeling fresh, plus having our openings and gaps sealed might be the answer to our leaks, at least some of them!

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Yesterday on the way to water aerobics, Jeff, my downstairs neighbor, coaxed me into going to look at the new color and see the highlighted window sills done with the brick red accent color. He asked me how I liked it, I told him I liked it fine, and not worry, he would not get any trouble from me about this. Jeff chuckled and said he would not ever expect trouble from me!! At some point in the a.m., the elevator was having its annual check-up and was temporarily taken out of service. We got an e-mail later in the day reporting that some worker in the building had pried the doors open on the 5th floor. This is bad! The car was on the 1st level, and if someone had not looked, might have fallen down the shaft. Brother! Of course, then, an e-mail cautioning us not to pry the doors open on the elevator was necessary. As well as being warned not to hold hot coffee between our legs in the car.....and we wonder why the world is in the mess it is!?

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When I got to the pool, I got situated on the end where we had classes last year, but then I heard my name called from the adult pool end. It seems they have class over there now, so off I waddled to that pool. Ellen was not down stairs yet so I gave her a call to see if she was coming down. She was still sleeping but she plied herself from bed and came to aerobics. Ellen only recently came back to live in the building after her husband, Billy, died in late January. Baby steps, Ellen, baby steps.

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And we took many of those yesterday, both in class and for hours afterward! It was well after 3:00 pm before we went upstairs again, after talking for hours and hours, some weeping, some chuckling. We have plans to attend the special Wednesday night appetizer and happy hour event at The Club. Thursday is our "Instead'a Dinner" social for The Palace, and Friday night I am joining Ellen for a show in San Marco, "Out of the Woods". Great great fun coming our way!

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Besides the great social opportunities coming our way, Ellen and I had some deep conversations about the thing I love most to discuss: joy, and the true source of it. Hence, more tears and searching my memory for the appropriate passages in the attempt to sooth her grieving spirit. One of her greatest concerns is something she heard at a grief support group in Jax Beach where she was told not to consider herself as being married any longer, and that in heaven, she was not going to be married to Billy. I told her there is a passage in the Bible that says we will not be married nor given in marriage, but assured her also that we will certainly know each other, that I long for that reunion someday. Now, I am going to cry! Of course, I reminded her that the joy of heaven is our being face to face with our Father, having eternal bliss and joy (again!) in the heavenly realm, and "He will wipe every tear from our eye..."