Devastation and Destruction

The other day, Diane came over and we went out to lunch. First we looked for my shoes. I’ve lost a pair of shoes and have turned the house upside down looking for them. But no luck. So off we went for some good food and wine. Later in the afternoon I think I may have been watching “Snapped” on TV – you know the show where the wife or girlfriend is always a bitch and kills her husband or boyfriend. It’s great for people who don’t want to get too involved in a story as it starts with the murder, arrest of the bitch, moves on to the trial and then it’s over and another one comes on – and this is all done in half an hour! How about that? So as I was watching, the National Weather Service came on which of course was the end of any sort of television I wanted to watch. They had a big crawl on the screen listing every county in Oregon that was expecting a huge thunder and lightning storm almost immediately. So there was nothing but Weather on TV for hours. That was a drag. I’ll bet I saw the same tree down on the same house 10 times throughout the evening. Where I live it didn’t get too bad although we had quite a wind and one big crack of lightning and huge thunder right after it. I was careful and didn’t get close to the windows, stayed away from running water and even unplugged my phone in the kitchen. My two other phones were still plugged in, and kept ringing and ringing – I never answered. That was so annoying. When Teri and Cindy were little and we had thunder storms, I had us all sit in the middle of the living room on the floor, away from all outlets, windows and running water. And most of all, no talking on the phone. They thought I was crazy, but they’re alive and well today. Now who’s crazy?

When the storm was all over, I plugged in the part of the phone that controls the answering machine. Of course, I had to put a new message on as that man was taking messages, and I don’t even know him. That meant I had to find the instruction book and read up on how to record a Greeting. So I found the book, studied it and then made my Greeting. I didn’t like it, so I did it again. I didn’t like that one either and said, “Oh shit!” which was recorded in the greeting. So I started all over again and finally got one that was acceptable. I say only a few words – it’s not as if I were giving a dissertation so it shouldn’t be that difficult. The next morning I heard the phone in my bedroom ringing and ringing but my phone out in the kitchen wasn’t doing anything. I picked it up and it was dead! And then I noticed I hadn’t plugged in the actual phone line. No more storms for me! The next day I went out to see if my car had been smashed in by some big tree or branch and decided to take a picture of the devastation. The destruction was minimal as shown in the picture.

I notice David Carradine will be starring in the next episode of the new Fox show “Mental” which I reviewed on May 2. This one will be on Tuesday night. David plays an author who is struck by lightning along with his wife. She dies and he is left catatonic. The good Dr. Gallagher, Director of Psychiatric Services at the hospital, desperately tries to save him using his unorthodox ways. I don’t know how things turn out and won’t until Tuesday. Maybe David should have spent more quality time with Dr. Gallagher.