Thunder and lightning, oh my!

Sometime early this morning -- 1:00?? 2:00?? I was jolted awake by a loud clap of thunder and I heard pouring rain. It's kind of neat being up on the 3rd floor because I can hear the rain hitting the leaves in the trees. I'm actually up higher than two of the trees on our property. I was too tired to open my eyes but I could tell when lightning flashed because the room would get a bit brighter for a few seconds. I found it to be very soothing and went back to sleep.

Spoke to Audrey about it this morning and she was exhausted because she'd been woken up by the storm and Brett had come into her room and her dog was upset by the storm. She said she thought of me because she suspected I was enjoying it (I was!) You can see that we could both tell the same story but with a different twist!

The sprinklers just went on. I swear, they would run even if it were pouring rain! There is no lack of water up here. I understand some of you are being restricted on your water usage. They need it to fight all the fires. Your "smog" level is increasing too. Boy, did I move up here at just the right time! (whatever!)

Carlos left this afternoon to go home for the weekend. I dropped him off at the Max train. It's about an hour train ride to the Portland airport. Carol and I are going to try it out after she gets back. Then when I go home, I can just have someone drop me at the station. There's one just minutes away from here. It's Portland's BART.

I've scheduled my next vacation for August 29 through September 5, so I'll be home over Labor Day weekend. We'll have to celebrate Eric and Brendan's birthdays early (Eric's is 9/11 and Brendan's is 9/12). I also need to squeeze in visits with several of you! And clean out the refrigerator. It's become a joke up here to say that I have to go home every 6 weeks to clean out the 'frig. Most of the women I talk with can't imagine leaving their husbands alone in the house for long periods of time. Cal's probably gone back to eating out most of the time.

The hustle and bustle of the past several weeks has slowed down but I'm still very busy. This next wave that's moving over on the 11th is mostly the Commercial department and there has been nothing but confusion. First we thought they needed DID numbers. Then they didn't. Now we're back to yes they do. Of course, I've been making all the changes each time so then I have to go back and undo the changes and now I'm having to change them AGAIN. I brought my laptop home so I can work on it some this weekend. It's not really like working when you do it at home...it's more like getting caught up or getting ahead. Doing it at my own pace.

I need to find a narrow shelf that will fit on top of the table I'm using for my laptop. Then I could put my flatscreen TV on the shelf and use it as a monitor. I'm getting used to using dual monitors! It's so darned handy when you can move spreadsheets to one monitor and open other programs on the laptop. I need to buy a video cable but that should be all I need. I also brought my zip drive home to clean up some of my disks. Stuff I've been wanting to get to but keep putting off.

Tomorrow is housecleaning day though. Need to wash floors and vacuum. Just unpacked Carol's vacuum so I need to put it to good use. And clean out the refrigerator. Are you seeing a theme here?

I finally got to watch one of my Netflix CD's. I've been watching the Britcom series "As Time Goes By" with Judy Dench and just finished season 6. Such fun! SO .. I mailed it off yesterday and they received it today and I should have my next one Saturday. But here's the fun part. Last week or maybe the week before, I turned down a side street to cut over to Cornell so I could find an ATM machine and as I'm driving down this "new" road (new to me) off to the right I see a building with a HUGE Netflix sign. They are right here in Hillsboro!! I'm hoping it's one of their distribution centers. How cool is that!

There are a ton of fireworks going off outside. I can imagine our cat, Tigger, is going nuts at home. He's the original scaredy cat. Every 4th of July he runs around the house scrunching himself under the sofa (and he's not small) and then running to one of the bedrooms to hide under a bed. You can't hold him because he digs his claws into your arm as if his life is in mortal danger. Poor thing.

Well, it's 9:20 and the streetlights just went on so I'd better close and get myself organized for tomorrow.

Stay tuned!