Outnumbered!!!

I am at my brother's home in Atlanta for a few days. Up until this morning, Susan was here, too. But, tonight -- it's the guys and me! Four of 'em ... no, make that five! Tim (big guy), Christopher (sort of big guy), Jonathan (middle guy), Michael (little guy -- but who is the tallest) and last, but not least, is Keelan -- the dog -- male dog!! Talk about outnumbered!!!

"I am feeling better now, thank you .."

Rudy was feeling much better by yesterday morning when I was heading out. He had some silly smiles so I knew he was on the mend.

Bailey is now on a swim team so, of course, I needed to stop by and watch her swim. (Mom and Dad are watching her head towards the pool!) I was quite amazed -- she jumped in the water and swam like a pro. She's excited and actually had her first swim meet last night. (She's in the middle in the second photo. I tried to get her 'in action' but wasn't quite quick enough!)

Now I am in Atlanta on my way to Indianapolis. I won't arrive there until Monday afternoon. Now I feel like I'm writing in my diary ...

Keelan, Tim and Susan's dog, was thrilled that I had come to visit "him" and spent most of the evening "talking" to me. It's sort of a growl but I'm sure he thinks I should understand every word he 'says'!!

This morning, this big golden lab was 'crying' when he saw Susan packing a bag. (She's going to a wedding in Birmingham.) He wanted to go with her and followed her around the house whining. I guess he finally gave up because he is now sleeping at my feet!

"Nana, I don't feel good ..."

So Rudy seems to be trying to tell me. He had a fever last night and since he really has never been sick since birth, this was something to pay attention to. He had a fever again this morning and when Teri touched his ear, it seemed to be tender. A noon doctor's appointment confirmed the diagnosis of an ear infection although it was just in one ear. I guess that part was good. I came over to spend the night before driving up to Atlanta tomorrow. I think I'll stay alert to a little guy during the night although his mom does a great job with that already. I sure wish they had these video monitors when my kids were little. It would have saved a lot of steps!

Why is it ...

... that whenever you decide to move photos off your computer onto a flash drive or CD, inevitably those photos are exactly what you need a day or two later! It happens every time!!!

So, here I am ... looking for a couple photos that I saw a couple days ago. I looked at them and said to myself (yes, I talk to myself -- and usually out loud to the chagrin of my kids sometimes), "I surely won't need these right away." I felt like a kid repeating, "I will -- I won't -- I will -- I won't."

Well, "I won't" won out -- but I should have listened to "I will!" Now I gotta go find 'em again unless I decide it just isn't worth it. Problem is, I have just enough of an obsessive nature (girls, no remarks from you!) to make me want to find them. So, somebody may get an email about 2am when I decide I want to look for them again and decide to answer emails while I'm at it. I know, weird ...

Have power but don't flush unless necessary!!

Okay -- so we were without power for six hours or more! We waited -- and waited -- and watched as a myriad of Progress Energy trucks seem to circle the substation or whatever they call it.

I drove by about 6pm and noticed that some people had stopped to watch and also saw a Bay News 9 TV reporter and cameraman. I found that interesting since no one seemed to be covering an outage which was affecting some 34,000 Progress Energy customers. The reporter waved at me when he saw I had a camera. "Did you happen to get pictures when this was on fire?" Yeah, right! I was waiting right in front of this to see when it would blow up. Of course not!

I decided to ask him a question ... "Where have YOU been? The fire happened about 2:30pm and no one has reported anything and it is now 6:30pm and you are the only TV crew on hand." (Yes, I actually asked this question!) (Later Channel 13 (Fox) appeared.) He told me that the power company does not like to alert the TV stations so it wasn't until they started receiving calls around 4:30pm that they decided to check it out.

So .. you would think we could rest easy now that our power is back on -- it came back on somewhere near 9pm (off at 2:30 -- back on for about 30 minutes in the middle). Ha! Here is what the local TV news is telling us now -- ooops, sorry! Hold off flushing your toilet or using too much water ...

Pinellas utilities customers urged to limit water use and flushing

PINELLAS COUNTY,FL--As a result of a Progress Energy substation going down, seventeen Pinellas County Utilities pump stations are currently without power. This poses a threat of sewer system overflows occurring in the field.

Particularly vulnerable are the beaches south of Indian Rocks Beach to Treasure Island and Indian Shores as well as the southern parts of Seminole [where we live]. Customers are urged to limit water use and in particular flushing, showers and clothes washing until power is restored and the system is back on line.

Utilities is bringing in 9 portable generators which will be moved around as needed, however some of the stations are nearing overflow stage. Utilities crews are on stand-by to respond to any incidents.

Where's the power when you need it??

We'll see if I actually get this posted. Some big transformer of some sort either caught on fire or blew up and all of our area is out of power -- it happened about 2:30 or so -- it is after 5:00pm and the update says, "We're sorry. This is taking longer than expected!" The crazy thing is that it seems to be a pick and choose kind of thing. Some traffic lights are on -- some aren't. Whatever the case, we had power come back on for all of about 30 minutes and then it went off again. Who knows when it will be back on .. guess we'll just have to wait and see. I'm on my laptop and so far, the power is up to snuff -- but that could change before long!

It happened not far from Tim and Sandi's house -- where all kinds of electric stuff is located and I know there is a name -- switching station or something like that. (Don't throw any tomatoes at my ignorance .. then again, they aren't selling many of those these days anyway!)

I went to the Progress Energy website and they show our entire area without power but said it should be would be up at 4:30pm -- hmm -- it's 5:15pm and the power is still off. I guess it's now up to the 'powers that be'! Sad pun, huh?

Hey, all you folks in Indianapolis, you're gonna get ice!

I get updates from the weather bureau (of some sort) from Indianapolis. I started getting them when my parents lived in an assisted living facility and it kept me up-to-date on a severe weather that might be coming their way. I continue to get those and sometimes get multiples every day. Updates -- updates of updates -- cancellations -- oops, made a mistake -- another one!

So, I got one tonight and thought I would go onto the AOL weather page .. here is what they showed for the current conditions in Indianapolis. Ya think somebody was sleeping on the job -- or sliding on the job -- or something or other?? With a current temperature of 66 degrees, I'd like to see some freezing precipitation! Oh, well!

Let's Sing! O-E-O-E-O!!

Teri told me yesterday that she has been working with Rudy on vowels -- A-E-I-O-U. (He's 13 months old). She has also incorporated sign language so for each of the letters, she shows him the "sign". They recite it over and over ... you get the picture.

So, recently, he threw his hand up in the air, squeezed it tightly and said, "O-E-O-E-O!! Guess he thought he had it mastered!