SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TOPEKA KS
1138 AM CDT FRI OCT 9 2009

KSZ008>012-020>024-026-034>040-054>056-058-059-100000-
REPUBLIC-WASHINGTON-MARSHALL-NEMAHA-BROWN-CLOUD-CLAY-RILEY-
POTTAWATOMIE-JACKSON-JEFFERSON-OTTAWA-DICKINSON-GEARY-MORRIS-
WABAUNSEE-SHAWNEE-DOUGLAS-LYON-OSAGE-FRANKLIN-COFFEY-ANDERSON-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...MARYSVILLE...HIAWATHA...CONCORDIA...
CLAY CENTER...MANHATTAN...ABILENE...JUNCTION CITY...TOPEKA...
LAWRENCE...EMPORIA...OTTAWA
1138 AM CDT FRI OCT 9 2009

...FREEZING TEMPERATURES LIKELY THIS WEEKEND...

A COLD CANADIAN AIRMASS WILL MOVE SOUTH INTO THE REGION TONIGHT...
BRINGING THE FIRST HARD FREEZE AND POSSIBLY RECORD COLD TO THE
REGION THIS WEEKEND. TEMPERATURES ARE FORECAST TO FALL INTO THE MIDDLE
20S ACROSS MUCH OF THE AREA BY SUNDAY MORNING WHICH COULD BREAK
RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE FOR MANY LOCATIONS THAT WERE SET IN THE
FIRST PART OF THE 20TH CENTURY. ADDITIONALLY HIGH TEMPERATURES
WILL NOT WARM VERY MUCH AS READING DURING THE DAY MAY STRUGGLE TO
EVEN REACH THE MIDDLE AND UPPER 40S FOR SATURDAY AND SUNDAY.
NORMAL HIGH TEMPERATURES FOR THIS TIME OF YEAR ARE HIGHS IN THE
LOWER 70S AND LOWS IN THE MIDDLE 40S.

Gotta love those Canadians and their airmasses. I hope all the mosquitos, ticks and fleas die horrible deaths and some of the flowers survive. That's how I roll.

Mary Travers, the Mary of Peter, Paul and Mary, has passed over. She was 72 and had luekemia. Henry Gibson, the flower-holding poet of Laugh-In, also died, age 73.

Probably a lot of people still know who PPM were; not so sure about Henry Gibson.

There is nothing that makes me feel older than the icons of my younger years passing. I got to see PPM once, when I was a KU student, at an on-campus concert in Hoch Auditorium.

The same place I saw Bill Cosby when word came during his performance that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been killed.

I have lived through some interesting times...

K. is back home, finally, as of yesterday. Since I was at work when they finally sprung her from the hospital, R. went and picked her up, bless his heart.

She has an armload of new medications on top of the ones she was already taking. That doesn't seem good to me.

We both are going to somehow have to concentrate really hard on "lifestyle changes," I guess. I'm not sure how but we have to.

For the casual reader who doesn't know my life, K. is the sister who shares the house with me.

I went to bed about 1030 last night, up that late because I didn't have to work today. At about 0230, K. woke me up with the news that she needed to go to the hospital. She had a very erratic and rapid heartbeat, which she also had about two months ago and that was the first ER trip re this. She had been on meds prescribed by her primary physician since then.

So, we went to the ER where they graphed her, poked her, tested her and gave her different meds intended to slow down the process. None of that had much effect, so ultimately they kind of knocked her out and then shocked the heart. That did the trick, but they decided to keep her for a couple of days in the telemetry unit to keep an eye on her and decide on a course of treatment.

I finally went back home about 0730 to take care of the dogs and cats. Tried to lay back down but not much success. Went back to visit at the hospital and take magazines, electronic game and word puzzle books about 1430.

Then went down to Lola's, had coffee and something to eat. Now I am ready for total collapse, but need to take care of the animals again and then...zzzzzz....

I'm going to say this is Michelle's fault. But I did acquiesce! And i didn't even change the items I had quibbles with, so don't you, either. Snarky and smart-aleck answers are valid too. :D

YOU'RE ON MY FRIENDS LIST, I want to know 28 things about you. I don't care if we've never talked, never really clicked, or if we already know everything about each other. I really don't. You are obviously on my flist, so let me know with whom I'm friends!

1. Your Middle Name:
2. Age:
3. Single or Taken:
4. Favorite Movie:
5. Favorite Song or Album:
6. Favorite Band/Artist:
7. Dirty or Clean:
8. Tattoos and/or Piercings:
9. Do we know each other outside of LJ?
10. What's your philosophy on life?
11. Is the bottle half-full or half-empty?
12. Would you keep a secret from me if you thought it was in my best interest?
13. What is your favorite memory of us?
14. What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
15. Tell me one odd/interesting fact about you:
16. You can have three wishes (for yourself, so forget all the 'world peace etc' malarky) - what are they?
17. Can we get together and make a cake?
18. Which country is your spiritual home?
19. What is your big weakness?
20. Do you think I'm a good person?
21. What was your best/favorite subject at school?
22. Describe your accent:
23. If you could change anything about me, would you?
24. What do you wear to sleep?
25. Trousers or skirts?
26. Cigarettes or alcohol?
27. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together? (If you have no idea, just say something crazy, it'll entertain me!)
28. Will you repost this so I can fill it out for you?

The backyard seems like it's just full of birds.

We've been watching a mourning dove nest in our redbud tree since earlier this month. We knew the eggs had hatched because shells were found beneath the nest, but today is the first day I've been able to see a baby!

Plus, there are lots of baby and juvenile robins hopping around.

I'm going to refer people here, to another blogging spot, since they let me post pics for free.

I'm very happy to have more birds in my world!

And I'm doubly happy this is the first of ten days away from work...woohoo!

Let me explain that.

Got home late-ish last night from the Web Ostara ritual (which was great, BTW), and fooled around on the computer until my sis got home from work.

Then we were just sitting in the living room talking and watching TV when we heard a "screech, thump, big wham, broken glass" sound from right outside the north side of the house.

Pretty sure there was a wreck of some kind, so ran out to take a look, and there was a red SUV-type vehicle completely upside down, half on the parking and half in the street. Two guys were stumbling around, apparently having gotten out immediately.

They were the only two in there. We called 911 for them to get the police there. They were both young guys; the passenger was really upset, pacing around and swearing. The driver wasn't feeling so good, said his back was killing him, but he wouldn't sit down and was pacing around too. I think he might have been DWI.

When the cops got there, they called an ambulance, which arrived almost immediately. Must have been parked down at St. Francis which is a block south of us. They put the driver on a backboard and took him away. I think the cops persuaded the passenger to go get checked out too.

The vehicle was totalled. Looking at it upside down I couldn't imagine how anyone survived, because the front passenger compartment looked absolutely crushed.

Later, when the wrecker came and uprighted the car (an interesting and educational process in itself), I could see there was more headroom than I had thought. It was badly, badly broken, though.

The driver had kept saying he took his foot of the gas but it didn't stop. We did hear brakes applied right before the crash. I'm thinking, drunk, speeding, lost control of it.

They took out a "no parking" sign right by our driveway, not many yards from where I park my van, but the only damage was that sign and some big gouges in the dirt in the parking. They didn't even get close to the privacy fence.

I'm so glad nobody was killed. I'm sure they're both hurting today, though.

And I didn't get any pictures; it just didn't seem right to do that, even though I've never been that close to an accident that just happened before.

Also very glad I took today off, because I wouldn't have gotten much sleep after all that took place!

I came to work without a coat today. The weatherman on TV says 80 will be the high.

I will feel like turning on the air conditioning in the car when I leave work, but I'll try to resist. I'm damn sure not turning it on at home even if it is hot, because I'm just not ready for that.

Nor am I taking the storm glass off the front screen door.

Because March is treacherous, that's why.

Last night I had a dream that I went outside and all of a sudden it was Spring. The trees were all leaved out, the grass was green, there were flowers growing everywhere. In the dream, I said, "Oh, wait, I have to go back in and get my camera!"

Then I woke up, and it was cold, and it was still February. Brr.

Picture in my Picture Topeka blog, here: http://picturetopeka.blogspot.com/2009/02/still-february.html

Last night, I had a phone call from my Aunt L. L. is my mother's younger sister, born I think seven years later than my mother.

My mother died in 1993. She had been in somewhat poor health but her death was sudden and unexpected.

I'm pretty sure my Aunt L. was thinking of her because my mother's birthday was this past week. But what L. had to say completely knocked me back...

I have known for some time that Aunt L. was sort of slipping mentally; the sort of thing we all expect to see in our aging loved ones. You know, repeating the same stories over and over, mixing up the names of various relatives, embroidering where you can't quite recall.

She called me last night because she had been talking with one of her brothers and had mentioned something about my mother, and they had to tell her that my mother was dead. So, she called me to see if that was really true. She sounded so shocked that it was, and that she could not remember it happening.

I wanted to cry but I was too shocked for that myself. To not remember, to not know of any longer, the death of your only sister?

How hard must this be, to go through life having to meet all the things from your past again and again, in unbelievable bits and pieces? I'm watching this slow pace down that long road from a distance. I feel so much for her son, who is in the same town and sees her nearly every day.

Please, don't let me live if I can't remember. Please.