Saturday was a long day and had mixed rewards. Our wood pile had grown tragically small and the weather has taken a sudden dive. Papa had a lead on some free wood, all we needed to do was pick it up and haul it away; and this we did. We did not realize there was nearly a cord of wood to pick up; I'm far from complaining about it, but it did force us to adjust our expectations about how long the chore would take us. Since Papa is still recovering from his dislocated shoulder injury he could not lift much, which left me with most of the heavy lifting; to put it bluntly I am sore all over my body.

It was a hot and stormy night . . . at least that's how it ended up. It was a hot day, as it has been for a while, and as usual we had our bedroom window open with the hope of cooling it off (and it was frigidly cold this morning). Usually we have to endure the cats jumping on and off the windowsill, and at first that was waking us up, but now we have learned to ignore it. Tonight it was “Mother Nature's” turn to wake us up, and not because we had a glass of water before we went to bed.

Somewhere around 3:30 AM I awoke, and at first I had no idea why I was awake, but a mere moment later the sky lit up as if some crazed photographer was attacking my backyard with his flash, the accompanying thunder told me otherwise. My new sound system is powerful enough to vibrate the house in little bits, but this crash of noise shook the world. When the second pair of lightning and thunder came near simultaneously I had my reason for the extreme volume assailing my ears. When the power knocked out from the second blast (for only 5 seconds or so) I was not immediately surprised, though I do wonder if anything was struck.