The sound of…

lightning and thunder and heavy rain was heard for hours yesterday and overnight.   We were under a tornado watch when I went to bed.  It is still raining here this morning with severe thunderstorm warnings out.  We are under a flash flood watch until late tonight.  I live near the Illinois River but not in the area that would be flooded.  Our total rainfall for the last 24 hours so far is somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 inches.  Because we had heavy rain last week the ground is saturated.  No more rain deficit!

The weather has put off my Thursday grocery shopping until tomorrow morning.  And there is no sense cleaning when the weather is so miserable.  So that leaves the Arias trial for me to watch unless Jodi is still suffering from a migraine headache today.  She did look awful in court yesterday.  I think she looks rather gaunt lately and is not smirking so much.  I am liking the expert witness that the prosecution has.  The defense is not having much luck getting  her to back away from her testimony.

I hope you all have a good day.  Stay safe and be happy!!

Beth

Thursday aftermath…

Yesterday was filled with many thunderstorms, breaks of sunshine and copious amounts of rain.  It rained harder than it has rained since I moved here.  We were under a severe thunderstorm warning until 2 AM.  We have had over 4 inches of rain so far this month.  Our rain deficit is shrinking very nicely.  It was still pouring rain and lightning and thunder when I went to bed at 10PM.

I have been out this morning to the bank and grocery shopping.  Buying up all of the good buys.  Lots of good things to eat, strawberries, Fuji apples and chocolate pinwheel cookies, etc.  I can’t believe the price of those pinwheel cookies.  On sale for $3.97 a package.  I rarely buy them but today I gave in to temptation.

Other than the above mentioned I have done nothing.  I am settling in to watch the Arias trial

Stay safe and be happy!!

Beth

 

A rainy day in Illinois…

Preparing to cross the Illinois River this morning over the McClugage Bridge.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McClugage_Bridge

It is 64 degrees here now with thunderstorms predicted for this afternoon.

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Stay safe and be happy!!

Beth

It is obvious…

since I am writing a post this morning that I didn’t win the Lotto last night.  Shoot, I didn’t even have one number.  Some lucky person or persons from Michigan won.  I have relatives in Michigan but none in the area where the winning ticket was sold.

It is drizzling rain here this morning with thunderstorms all around us.  We have a 70% chance of rain today with a cold front moving through.  The weather scanner has already gone off this morning scaring me half to death while I was in the middle of my morning workout.  Right now it is black as night outside so I think the storms are getting closer.  I am also hearing some thunder boomies so I am hoping for some much needed rain.

So what do I do on a day when the power could go out at any minute?  Why I hurry up and close off this post.  You all stay safe and be happy!!

Beth

Happy Father’s Day…

to all of the fathers out there.  I am missing my ‘daddy’ today.  He has been gone a long time but I will never forget him.  Nobody else in my lifetime has ever called me Boogie.  (Thank heaven).  Daddy had pet names for all five of his girls.  My oldest sis was called Mutt because she was very short.  My next older sis was called Jeff.  I think in those days there was a comedy team named Mutt and Jeff.    A Google search just confirmed for me that they were comic strip characters.  My sis older than me was called Hezzie.  If you are checking out these links you are finding out that my dad had a great sense of humor.  I won’t mention what daddy’s pet name was for my only remaining sister.  The number one reason is I can’t remember it.  Rae, if you are reading this please refresh my memory.  

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We had thunderstorms roll through here last night.  The weather alert went off so many times that I finally shut it off until I went to bed.



Those weather warning radios are great to have but they sound just like a siren when they go off.  Even with all of the activity the rain total didn’t amount to much.  We are really getting desperate for rain.

I hope you all have a great day.  If your dad is still living give him a hug from Boogie.  And…you all stay safe and be happy!!

Beth

Murphy go away…

and take your darned old law with you.  Yep, old Murph has moved back in with me.  After my son in law added the windshield washer fluid to my car on Sunday he mentioned to my daughter that I was due for an oil change soon.  Marcia told me about it this morning and went with me to the Buick dealer for an oil change.  When Tom came to tell me that my car was ready he said ‘but’ your back shock is leaking on the left and the right one is wet.  Well I had to think about that one.  I looked at where I park my car and sure enough on the pristine concrete that was just poured last fall was a nice round drippy spot.  Welcome home Murphy!  So I called my BFF at the dealership and he said that I could bring the car back out and they would do it this afternoon.  My daughter was kind enough to go with me.  Now I am about $400 poorer and Murphy is hogging my television.  Anybody want him??

It was very chilly this morning but it is windy and has warmed up to 71 degrees this afternoon.  We are under a severe thunderstorm watch.

I took a couple of pics at my daughter’s house this morning. 

Here you can see how green everything is getting across the street.

Here you can see how green my kids yard is.  Mike has had to mow twice already.

I also bought a new hard drive to back up my computer this morning.  Now I will have to wait until tomorrow to use it.  I guess I can’t blame that on Murphy.

Enough jabbering or would you say gossiping RB??  I hope your day has been a good one.  Let me know if you have room in your house for Murph to visit you.

Stay safe and be happy!!

Beth

Homemade cookies tomorrow…

I have just finished making cookie dough to bake tomorrow.  I find that cookies are easier to bake and hold their shape better if the dough is chilled thoroughly first.  I fixed old fashioned oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip dough.  The recipe for the oatmeal cookies is on my recipe space, the chocolate chip recipe is on the Nestle chocolate chip package.  I have tried many recipes for chocolate chip cookies and I haven’t found one yet that beats the recipe on the bag.  I will put some of the cookies in the freezer and share the rest with my daughter and son in law.

This has been a pretty miserable day weather wise.  A severe thunderstorm woke me up this morning at 5:30.  Lots of lightning and loud booms.  I turned over and went back to sleep for another hour and a half.  The sun tries to come out every now and then in between rain showers.

I have been out today, paying a bill and going to the grocery store.  I settled in to watch the trial which was recessed ASAP till tomorrow morning at 8 AM.  No verdict on the Blagojevich trial yet.  Trials fascinate me.  I sat on the jury in a federal drug case quite a few years ago and on the jury of a drunk driving case in my county.  That is the extent of my jury experience.  I wouldn’t mind doing jury duty again if it was in town here.  I sure don’t want to have to drive to Peoria,

I hope you all are having a sunny day.  Stay safe and be happy!

  Beth

Isn’t he cute??

My next door neighbors have put a squirrel feeder on the light pole behind my back door.  This little fella has been eating like a hog the few days it has been there.  What he doesn’t get the blackbirds are after.

Click on the pic to make it larger.  The date on the pic shows 2007.  After being here a year I finally found my other camera.  The battery was dead.  I didn’t change the date when I put the new battery in.  Mystery solved.  I think I have finally found all missing items that I lost when I moved.

The squirrels around front have been digging in my marigolds.  That is not very nice of them.  Last year they kept digging the petunias up.  I don’t think these squirrels are very cute. 

It is cold here this morning at 51 degrees, supposed to get down to 45 degrees tonight.  The weather forecast for tomorrow is partly sunny so I am crossing my fingers for that.

We had severe thunderstorms last night and parts of my city was without power.  I was fortunate and so was my daughter and son in law as neither of us lost power.  For 1 & 1/2 hours the local channels on TV were broadcasting the weather’s progress.

What are you all doing for the holiday weekend?  I know that the American Legion at home that Jim was a member of puts flags on the graves of the military.  It is beautiful with all of the flags waving.

Gotta go now.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.  Stay safe and be happy!!

  Beth

Thunderstorms…

all night long and it is still storming.  We are under a tornado watch until 1PM CDT.  It is 55 degrees this morning, much cooler than yesterday morning.  My family in Missouri is all safe.  Thank God for that.  I was watching the devastation from the tornado on the news last night, just sitting there crying, putting myself there, and praying for the ones who lost so much.

I am hoping that the weather fairs off for Friday.  That is the day that my daughter and I plan to visit Jim’s grave and put flowers there.  It will be a year in July since I have been there and that bothers me a lot.  Distance is the downside of my moving here.  I will take a minute to stop in and say hello to a couple of my friends that work downtown.

There is nothing new to report here today, except of course the weather.  This has been one of the worst years in history for tornadoes .

I hope you all have a wonderful day.  For Paul on vacation at Martha’s Vineyard, have a great time.  Stay safe and be happy!!

  Beth

'Cut the city in half': Death toll rises to 89 in Missouri tornado

This is heartbreaking news and the death toll will undoubtedly rise as the search is continuing.  http://www.htrnews.com/article/20110523/MAN0101/305240013/Update-89-killed-Joplin-Mo-tornado?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE  This really makes me feel small this morning.  My worries seem like nothing compared to this disaster.  Nancy, I know that you are in northern MO.  Please let us know that you guys are OK.  I do have a niece that lives at Kansas City and various relatives in south central MO.  Bryce, I hope you guys are all OK.

We got thunderstorms and just a small amount of rain yesterday.  We were under a tornado warning for about an hour yesterday, the worst storm being north of us.  No damage or loss of life, thank God!   This morning it is sunny and 68 degrees right now.

My smoke/carbon monoxide detector is acting up.  I am going to have to call maintenance at 9 AM to have them come and check it again.  I really hate that.  Why does this happen on a Saturday night? 


I still can’t access Blogger dashboard through IE.  I am having no problem accessing it through Firefox or Chrome.  If any of you are having trouble with dashboard you might want to try Firefox or Chrome.

And now I need to get busy and do a bit of cleaning.  I hope you all have a great week.

  Beth

Rain, Rain Go Away...

The thunderstorms and heat seems to be never ending this year, perhaps because I am getting older day by day. I honestly don't remember a period like this in my lifetime where we had thunderstorms every day for such a long period of time.

We are under a flash flood warning which we are experiencing here right now with rain totals of 3 - 6 inches today. I actually was having a good hair day for once and the downpour took care of that. A good hair day is an unusual occurrence for me. lol

I heard some disturbing news about windows live spaces this morning, gossip actually, that there will be more drastic changes. We will wait and see. Of course we won't get any warning, it will just happen.

I have my raincoat and umbrella at the ready so that is all from my little corner of the world today.