PORCH PONDERINGS

And now they start.....

Ah wonderful - the fireworks stand is open again. Hooray for us. North of me, about a half block, is an old school yard, playground actually, no longer used by the school. The building stands empty waiting on a rehab. People still use the playground equipment and part of the building is being used as a senior center. But this time of year, it is a popular place for launching fireworks. Bottle rockets. Firecrackers. Anything that goes BOOM! Anything that makes a very loud irritating noise that shakes the windows and keeps you awake at 11:30 at night. This goes on from a week before the 4th of July until a week after the 4th of July. It is so bad that some Viet Nam veterans actually leave town for this time. My dog, when she was still with us, cowered under the bed for these weeks. We tried everything but nothing helped her anxiety. And I wasn't going to go the drug route with her. The last few years she went deaf, so that made it a bit easier. So I drug out the earplugs for myself the other night. I am as bad as the dog, I fear. I need peace and quiet when I seek sleep.

Now tonight I pray we get another rain shower like just went through. Holy Cow - it was looking kind of cloudy one moment, then I heard thunder, and then the heavens let loose. We got about 1/2 inch of rain in about 10 minutes. Plus a bit of hail. Pretty impressive. It also cooled off about twenty degrees. So nice sleeping weather tonight.

I have a book club meeting tomorrow. We have to discuss a book by Stephen King. I have two in mind. He wrote a great little on writing. I may discuss that. I also read "11-22-63". This discusses the idea of time travel and what might have happened if JFK had not be assassinated. What happens if you change history, and of course, it is never just that straight forward with Stephen King. There are lots of twists and turns and red herrings and what ifs. I thoroughly enjoyed it, it is a big one, as are most of his books. So, why no do both? is my final decision. There, I've decided. One less thing to think about tomorrow.

I also have to do some work for a women's retreat we are planning for the church body in Montana. Seems I am in charge of advertising for this body. I have done a flier I was going to email to all women tomorrow, but forgot that my program, Pages, in my Mac, does not translate to Microsoft users. So now I have to cut and paste and do magic to make it work. Ah yes, the beauty of computers. And I thought I was being so smart and cute.

But enough of my stupid decisions, I am off to read. I went to the library, masks required, and got some good books. I hope the fireworks are canceled for tonight.