Well THAT Was A Wild Night!

Halloween started out just about perfect yesterday except that I still hadn't bought any candy for the kids and was debating on whether or not I was even going to. I wasn't feeling real well, certainly not well enough to shop for Halloween candy, just kind of icky stomach feeling so I asked Keith if he would do the honors and also pick some stuff up for his lunches.

He came back with two big bags of that gross 'Child's Play' candy, the bags with tootsie rolls, tootsie roll pops and Dots in them, candy that I know I liked as a kid but certainly don't now, which is good so that I don't eat up all the candy before the kids even put on their costumes. When I worked overnight at Walmart stocking the candy section just putting those 'Child's Play' bags of candy out on the shelves made me wonder who actually bought the stuff, along with those circus peanuts.

Anyway, it was a really nice day yesterday, just warm enough but not hot, nice enough to where after my stomach started feeling a little better I went out and mowed the front yard then raked up leaves in the back patio and rearranged things so that Genie's table and basket and cat stand would all be under the little roofed over area of the patio because we were promised rain starting at about 9pm and might as well be prepared. Lucy could stay in the garage overnight.

I was kind of surprised at how many kids we got trick or treating last night and every single one of them said thank you, good manner prep there moms and dads! I sat on the front porch with the candy so that the doorbell wouldn't be constantly ringing, Keith was expecting to go out at 2:30 am and was trying to sleep. It was actually kind of fun to sit out there, such a nice evening that was warm enough to not need a jacket. Lucy was outside with me and thought it a rare treat to have me sitting out there so long even if the kids scared her a little bit. She kept running off and running back and looking around for her chair with her blanket on it, which I had moved out of the way and when you move something to a different place it freaks a cat out. WHERE IS MY CHAIR?!?

Around about 8:00 it looked like the rush was over so I turned out the lights and went back inside, only getting one more brazen kid who banged on the screen in the dark at about 9 and don't kids know that if the lights are out don't knock on the door?

The winds started in about 9:30 with my new wind chime outside my window needing to be taken down because it was going crazy, and our new tree was bending so much that I'm surprised it's still standing today. Things started banging around in the side yard where Keith keeps his junk, one of the pieces of junk being a sheet of metal which the wind picked up and threw around, loud enough to wake him up to go out and check on things. He woke up about 3 more times, he had left his window open to hear the rain, which also started about 9:30, rain that we haven't seen in about 8 months here. Heavy rain for a while, complete with some thunder and lightning. He looked out his window in time to see lightning, and in the glow saw Genie running around like THE SKY IS FALLING!!

He got up again and caught her and threw her in the window to the shed where she has a platform and box to curl up in, who knows if she stayed in there or not, but she was still alive when I got up this morning.

Pepper crawled under the entertainment center when it thundered and Bear sat between the side of the couch and the wall, I didn't see Buddy so he was probably hiding under the bed. Mimi is pretty brave, she just kind of looks around like what the heck is that, and who knows where Harri was during all the fuss.

Fortunately Keith's 2:30 am call didn't happen and he got to sleep in this morning and just went to work about an hour ago. It's still cloudy outside with a few more chances of sprinkles today, so I'm hoping that this storm won't be the last and we will get more this winter. They could be a little quieter storms, though.

The Big Bang

Yes, I love the TV show, but this post has nothing to do with that.

Across the highway from where we live there is a huge abandoned PG&E power plant that has been idle for years and finally is being demolished. I'm not real sure what they are going to do with the property once it's all cleaned up, but probably another shopping center or whatever. Anyway, they've been pulling it down for what seems to be a long long time now, complete with one accident where a worker was killed, and today they had scheduled the implosion of the big huge center building/plant/whatever it is. A big building. That's all we really need to know.

They told us on the news the past couple of days that the road next to the plant would be closed early in the morning and if you parked on Rosedale Hwy to watch, you would get a ticket. Keith really wanted to go watch, but he left sometime during the night to go to work, I have no idea when, I just know that when I woke up at 5:30 he was gone.

I totally forgot about the planned implosion, and let the cats go out in the back for a bit (yes, that trying to keep them inside didn't last long) and went to get a cup of coffee. As I'm opening the refrigerator door to get my creamer, I hear what sounds like big piles of wood falling right inside the house or maybe an earthquake coming and as I'm turning around to see what the cats have gotten into now, they are panicked and running into the house and then there is a huge BOOM and I remembered what it was. Oh, yeah, the implosion.

The cats stayed hidden for about an hour afterwards, and later I rode the bike over to the store and also to see what was left of the plant. I expected to see huge piles of rubble, but it just looked like they cut the building in half and the two halves are just kind of sitting like the tower of pisa, leaning way over. I don't know if that is what was supposed to happen but it didn't look at all like I imagined it would.

So, that was our excitement for this morning, I guess the sound was like a sonic boom, no windows rattled, but it definitely was loud.

I tried out my little microwave egg cooker and it works pretty well although not real appetizing looking. The first time I used it the egg tried to escape out from under the lid which looked kind of creepy, but this morning it stayed inside where it belongs. You crack the egg and stir it up a bit and add bacon or ham if you want and it's sort of like a mini omelette. It actually tastes better than a fried egg to me and is certainly WAY easier to fix.

I put mine on one of the Thomas's high fiber 100 calorie english muffins, which are okay but do not taste as good as a real english muffin. But not a bad breakfast except for the copious amounts of butter I put on my english muffins.

I also tried bbq chicken breasts in the microwave the other night, with boneless chicken breasts, a recipe that you usually bake in the oven for like 40 minutes, but in the microwave it only took 4 1/2 minutes and tasted about the same as the oven baked version.

We Really Are

The most boring Fourth of Julyers ever.

What did we do yesterday?

Nothing patriotic like shopping at Macy's for a new mattress at the Fourth of July saleabration, or having a barbecue or going to a lake or a beach or someone's backyard or a fireworks show or a street fair or a festival or a parade.

Nothing. We did nothing.

We did have grilled hamburgers for dinner as our salute to independence but they really weren't very good.

And then all of the other people in the neighborhood started setting off their fireworks. Lots of fireworks. Illegal shoot them into the air fireworks. War zone fireworks.

Buddy hid under the bed in terror where Harri joined him. Pepper hid under the bookshelf in the living room. Mimi wandered about the house with a look of what the hell is happening around here on her face, as was Bear. I don't know where Lucy was, she disappeared somewhere outside as soon as the first rocket went off. Genie was the only one who didn't seem too concerned, maybe she is deaf? She did stay pretty close to the back door all night, though.

Fun Fourth of July, huh?