TODAY . . .

Remember my last post? Well, today was ditto only more lightening, louder thunder, and more rain.









All those streaks that look like Spanish Moss are the sheets of rain that were coming down. Couldn't step outside the front door because the rain was coming at me.

When I first saw this man coming down toward my house he was in the street, but I guess it got to be too much, and he was obviously going to be knocked over by the wake of cars, vans, trucks. When he finally reached my photographing point he had adapted his route to his advantage. I keep wondering what was so important that he took on this travel in the midst of the storm---maybe his job. Makes one wonder. . . .






The pluses were I didn't have to water the outside orchids and the temp dropped to 80. So, I guess it was a good day.

OUR LUCKY #---30%

Our area is in a draught, and we are about 12" below the average rainfall, so we really look forward to "bad weather."
For years I've said when the weather channel predicts anywhere from 70% to 90% chance of rain for us, or my neighborhood in particular, I might as well drag the hose out and go ahead and water. Call me pessimistic! Or at least, a disbeliever!

However, when I got up this morning the sky was overcast, and I became somewhat hopeful. Turned on the weather channel just in time for the local forecast, and in spite of the clouds the word was "a slight chance of thunder storms." YES! I did the things I needed to do in the greenhouse so I wouldn't get wet going out to do them later. Sure enough---a little after noon it turned really dark, and thunder came rolling toward us. Time to gather Mack in!



Mind you, I didn't start taking pictures until about 45 minutes later. The lightening and thunder were still present but less frequent and farther away, and the rain had lightened up considerably but was still steady. As you can see the street was still fairly full of water.

Then I became interested in the styles of driving people display when streets are not only wet but partially flooded. There are those who whiz on as if these were optimum conditions. Keep in mind the posted speed limit along this stretch is 15 mph because there is a significant curve just beyond the area seen from my kitchen window.








Then there were those who drove sedately, straddling the island down the middle when nothing was coming to force them over to their side of the street.








So much for my societal observations. The rain continued for almost three hours, and during that time I made a quick run to the grocery store for peanut butter and a green vegetable. Now it's 5:45 p.m., and I just checked the weather channel again. The temperature is only 79, about 15 degrees cooler than this time of day for the past couple of weeks. And, oh yes, 40% chance of rain tonight. Hmmm! Maybe . . . .

DISCLAIMER; When I previewed this post the text and positions of the pictures was not the way I arranged them. If it's all screwed up, I apologize. But I trust you to sort it all out and understand what goes where. Take care, ya'll.

HOW I SPENT THE 4TH OF JULY!

The day started with the church service at St. Mark's. I really love being there on a national holiday because the music is great, and we have some of the patriotic hymns. It's a very emotional experience that isn't there every Sunday though the music is always terrific. This 4th of July we sang "God of our fathers whose almighty hand," "The National Anthem," and "America the Beautiful." There were other hymns, of course, but these were special.

Back home I changed clothes, ate a bowl of cereal, and began making these little critters for the Shreveport Regional Orchid Judging Center.



These are attached with wire to any plants that are awarded something. This is really a labor intensive job because the stickers have to be stuck inside a laminating pouch, laminated, cut into squares, then the corners have to be rounded, and finally, a hole punched in the square. Ever seen one of these?



It's a little instrument for "cutting corners." Of course, you have to do each corner separately. Once that was done I punched in the holes for the wires. I made sixty of them. HOWEVER, THERE IS AN UPSIDE to this story of tedium. While doing this daunting task I was able to watch 1776, one of my favorite musicals on TV. It kept me in the spirit of the day.

Then I moved on to cleaning some of the plant labels we use during judging. At this point I learned the deeper meaning of tedium. It involves eliminating the pencil scribbling on a plastic label so that it can be reused. Simple erasing leaves smudges, but I've found making a paste of Bartenders Friend (from the grocery store or Walmart) and water and scrubbing like crazy with a pot scrubber does a really good job. So it goes from what you see on the left to what you see on the right.





I only got about 16 of these done when it was time to feed the dog and get dressed to go to the evening's festivities. Only have 40-50 more to go.

Chillax, Jaz, and Oyster picked me up just after 6:30 to go downtown to the Barnwell Garden & Art Center on the bank of the Red River for the 4th of July party which included our city's big fireworks display. We really lucked out on getting tickets---free. It included hot dogs, hamburgers, BBQ sandwiches, beans, potato salad, chips, tea, and lemonade, brownies and soft whip faux ice cream. I didn't eat all of that, but 'pert near. Oh, yes! There was live entertainment until dark billed as jazz, but I would call it "lounge" music, such as "Girl From Ipinema" and "My Satin Doll." Too loud, but they were good. (Maybe they were just trying to overcome the music from the next venue down the river.)

We had a table about 30 feet from the fence over the river. Excellent place to be for viewing the fireworks, and we had chairs, and, I forgot to mention that the temperature, though warm of course, was not unpleasant. I don't think any of us were sweating. Can you believe it? Didn't have to bring anything except ourselves---and camera, of course.

Chill and Oyster wanted to check out the barge with all the fireworks all set to go.






The fireworks began a little after nine . . .





and it was really fun to be so close and to be able to see everything. Plus I'd invested in earplugs for all of us to reduce the booms. It made me think of falling meteors or being in a Star Wars movie.



The show was about 25 min. long, and then came the finale.





It probably took about the same length of time to get out of the parking building at Sam's Town Casino and away from downtown. But I think it was worth it and lots of fun. Hope your holiday was great too.