Spoiler Alert

I finished my most recent book, Wizard Of Most Wicked Ways, this afternoon.   I'm going to give a bit of a review of it at the end of this post, but I wanted to give you a spoiler alert first.  It'll be a somewhat predictable spoiler, but still...this is your warning.  

But where should you stop reading if you want to avoid it?  When you get to the picture of the book cover.  I'll do the review after that -- the spoilery part at least.  I will say, however, I've thoroughly enjoyed this series, and would highly recommend it to anyone who likes the fantasy/magic genre. 

My other book, Ship Of Brides, isn't going quite as well.  It's not a bad book, but it isn't holding my interest all that well.  Still, I'm halfway through, so I'll keep plugging away at it.  I think I'll also start re-reading The Pendragon Cycle, by Stephen R. Lawhead.  

In other news, they've decided we need to have morning meetings with our group leader or supervisor at work every day.  We used to have them but had stopped years ago.  Probably because there really isn't that much to say in them after a while.  I mean, there are only so many times you can go over the same old safety rules, and only so many ways to say do your job.  

This morning, at the end of the meeting, Group Leader Shark said, "Have a blessed day," and I raised my hand and said, "If I'm going to have a blessed day, I need to go back home!"  Alas, that was not an option for me, but yesterday Substitute Supervisor did the meeting and at one point had said, "If you don't feel up to working, just don't even come."

So Demi-god stayed home today. 

And finally, since I can't remember what else it was I wanted to tell you, I'll get right in to the book review, and again, this is your final warning.  Stop reading here if you don't want to run up on a spoiler. For those of you who don't want to read the book review, good night.  I'm going to go watch another episode of The Crown.  

Laters. 

 And now for the spoiler part of my book review. 

The series revolves around a boy named Owein Mansel, who died at the age of 12, and somehow managed to embed his soul into a house on a lonely island off of the coast of Rhode Island, where his family had lived.  

Sometime later, during the Victorian Age, his great great great...I don't know how many greats...nephew Merritt Fernsby inherits the house and moves into it setting off a chain of events during which Owein's soul is transferred to a dog, then finally into the body of another boy who had drowned at the age of 14.  Throughout the series, he is pursued by an evil magician named Silas Hogwood who above all craves power.  

In this fourth book, the inevitable showdown between Owein and Silas finally happens, there on the island.  There is an epic battle magic battle and just when you expect huge climax, you read: 

Silas Hogwood passed away. 

It's a bit of a letdown after all of that buildup.  I'm no author, but I'd have expected something more along the lines of:  With a defiant shriek of rage and hatred, the soul of Silas Hogwood was shattered and ripped from this world, never to return.  Finally, it was over. 

Other than that, the series was very good, and I'd highly recommend it. 

It's Alive!!

It's alive!  

OK, it's not really alive, but it seems like it sometimes, because it gets absolutely everywhere.  It's so thick on the back window of my car that I can hardly see out of it.  Yes, I'm talking about the dreaded pollen. 

We're expecting more severe weather tomorrow, so I went ahead and brought my chair and table inside this afternoon, and they are both covered in pollen.  

And other stuff, but we won't talk about that.  But you can see how thick it is here. 

 I'll have to give them a good washing before I sit in them again.  Oh, and I bought a citronella candle this afternoon, so maybe I can sit out there without the skeeters chomping on me.   It won't be tomorrow, though, because as I said, we're expecting severe weather this weekend. 

I'd leave it outside, but there is that chance of hail.  I don't want my new chairs to be pulverized by egg sized balls of ice. 

They are still re-arranging our Walmart, by the way, so I got in and got out as quickly as I could.  I didn't even get some of the stuff I wanted, because I couldn't find it.   I was already aggravated because right before quitting time, they brought an entire buggy full of headers back from the line that had been brazed wrong. 

By second shift.  

First they said we'd only have to pull the bad legs out, and they'd make second shift re-make them, but about 10 minutes until 2:00, they told us we would have to stay over and braze the order up.  We weren't happy, but with all of us working together, we got the entire 188 order done, plus an 8 piece that had also been done wrong. 

I still say they should have made second shift re-do the order, because how are they going to learn accountability if we're constantly cleaning up their mess?  I was also aggravated because they expect us to work our butts off for a company that treats us like garbage.  

Oh, did I not tell you the latest?  As of yesterday, we are now required to raise our hands and ask permission to go to the bathroom.  How demeaning is that?

Or as my coworker quipped, "I'm just Inmate 12345 here."  

*No, that's not her real employee ID number.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, Inmate 54321 is going to go knit a bit before I have to report back to prison in the morning. 

Laters...

All Done!

 I got out this afternoon and finally got the last of those daffodil bulbs planted.  I don't know if they'll grow, but at least they're in the ground.  I think they might come up next year, because almost all of them were putting out little green leaves.  We're supposed to get a good rain Saturday to water them in well, so fingers crossed.

When I was done with that, I dug up a few more clumps of garlic, but I think I want to wait until I can get some topsoil to fill in the divots before I dig any more.  It's going to be a long process, I recognize that.  But I'm going to keep at it until it's done.   

In other news, the hummingbirds are definitely back --  or at least passing through.  I haven't seen one yet, but I've had to re-fill the front feeder and will have to re-fill the back one probably tomorrow.  Oh, and on a similar note, it's been warm enough that I've been letting the cat stay outside at night.   Don't worry, she's got shelter if she needs it, and I put a little bowl of food out in case she gets hungry.  

When I got up to get ready for prison--uh, I mean work -- this morning, I opened the door to let her in and there was a trash panda on my back porch!  We stared at each other for a minute, then I said, "You need to go on, Trash Panda, so I can get my cat inside."  He complied, and began walking away, when suddenly, out of nowhere, the cat rushed in and pretended she was chasing him off. 

"Oh, yeah, you're real brave when you have Mama backing you up!"  I said to her. 

That's about the most exciting thing that happened today, so here is a hat progress photo so there will be a thumbnail with this post. 

I've never seen this colorway pool like this, but I like it.  I wish I knew how I did it.  

I Didn’t Post

Oh, I intended to.  

Post, I mean.  Yesterday... but when I sat down at my computer, I realized all I was going to do was gripe about how bad it's gotten out at work.  I didn't want to put you through that, so I just went outside and sat in my chair in the cool of the evening.  

Until the mosquitoes found me and began snacking on me, that is.  Then I came inside and watched an episode of JAG, and went to bed.  And I dreamed about Admiral Chegwidden.  I guess that means I watch too much...

By the way, guess what I'm doing now...what I'm watching, rather....

So, anyway, I was sitting there in my chair and I realized, dadgum I've got a lot of wild garlic in my back yard.  

That's what all of that stuff is, and it occurred to me I probably ought to do something about it.   The only problem is, anything that might kill the garlic will also kill the stuff I want to keep -- the deadnettle, Hen bit, clover and the like.  So, there is only one thing to do.  

Dig it all up by hand.  Sigh...And right after work today, that's exactly what I started doing.  I planted a couple more rows of daffodil bulbs, then dug up a couple of clumps of the garlic.  It's going to take a while, and I may never get it all completely removed, but it's a start.  

In other news, weird stuff is going on at work, and I'm not talking about how horrible it's getting out there.  That's another post for another day.  Let me just say, when your turnover rate among new hires is in the 75-80% range, you've got serious problems.  No, this is something completely different.  

See, I was going around to the dispatcher's desk the other day to get a scrap ticket, only he was on the phone at the time.  I stood there patiently until he got off,  then he told me what the problem he was having was.  And that was that the schedule in the computer didn't match the printed one he had, and he didn't know what orders to release to the operators.  

He'd called the people up front, only they'd told him they hadn't changed anything. Apparently, there was a glitch and the computer was moving stuff around all by itself...

And all I could hear was 

And finally, it doesn't look like any more of my little seeds I planted are going to germinate, so sometime soon, I'm going to transfer them to slightly larger pots, then use my new pods to start some of those sunflower seeds I found. 

Or, I may buy some...and we'll just have to see how that goes. 

Here We Go Again

Hello?  Yes, I'd like to cancel my subscription to the storm of the week club, thank you.

I know, I know, but that's just the way it is during springtime in the South.  

You know what else it is during springtime in the South?  It's polleny.  So polleny.  Seriously, I was sitting in the chair in the back yard when the cat jumped up into my lap...and she was yellow.  The cat was yellow!  

There were even streaks of yellow in the parking lot at work.  I started to take a picture of it to show you, but I didn't.  Maybe tomorrow I will.  

Speaking of work, today started the new PPE policies, and there is always a silver lining.  This one is that the front office people are not coming out onto the shop floor nearly as much as they usually do.  Let's just hope that lasts.

In a strange twist of irony, the very first order I got this morning had one of the adapter tubes bent wrong.  Normally, I would just beat it into place with a hammer, but I was mad and after discussing it with the brazer who had the other half of the order, I just said, "We shouldn't have to struggle with this mess every day.  Just get the whole thing re-cut."  

So we did.  

Just last week, I was telling Uncle Supervisor that at some point, there has got to be accountability over in the tubing department.  They can't keep depending on their sub-brazers to sort out and re-order bad parts.  We'll never get ahead that way, especially if they lines start running like they should.  As it is, the only way we're keeping up now is because the lines are running so slowly.  If they were running full speed, there's no way we'd be able to keep up because all of the non-brazing stuff we have to do.  

It just blows my mind that they're not even required to check their parts to make sure they're correct before they bend an entire order wrong.  But they're not.  They just make whatever and say if it's wrong, the brazers will re-order it.  That's no way to run a successful business. 

But that's their main problem.  They've got too many bosses out there who care more about being right than being successful.  Case in point:  about 6 years ago, a representative from the company we buy our brazing rod from came to the plant and the first thing he said was that we are using the wrong rod.  We don't need to be using a 5HP.   We should be using a 5%.  

Now, I know that doesn't mean anything to most of you, but just roll with it. 

However, the powers that be, because they don't want to listen to anyone and can't abide anyone telling them that they're wrong, said they didn't feel the need to switch.  So, six  years on, we're still using the wrong brazing rod.  Go figure...

OK, moving right along, my seed starting pods arrived.

I found some seeds I'd saved from one of the sunflowers I grew last year, so I think I'm going to plant those.  I'm not completely sure, but I think they came from one of the ones that doesn't grow super tall.  I really need to get better at labeling things.   Oh, well.  They'll be a surprise. 

And finally,  I cast on a new charity hat and it has started pooling in a really weird way. 

 I'd had a couple of small balls of this yarn, so I cast on with the smallest one for the ribbing, then when I joined the second one, it started pooling this way.  I was concerned about joining the third ball, but as you can see, the strange pooling pattern has continued.  

I wish I knew how I did that, because when I want it to pool, it doesn't.  Oh well, I like it, and I'm sure whichever sailor gets it will, too. 

At least, I hope so. 

Spring Storms

OK, first of all, I watched the Netflix documentary on the Joplin tornado, and while the footage of the storm was downright terrifying, all I could think was, “Of all the people affected by this storm, these were the best representatives of the town of Joplin, and indeed the state of Missouri they could find to interview?”   Seriously, they made the stereotypical Mississippian look good.  

Let's just say, don't watch it at work or in front of your children.  Yes, it was that bad.  

The one the guy did on Rolling Fork was so much better, if you can find a way to watch it.  I watched it on Mississippi Public Broadcasting, and I think you might be able to watch it on PBS at the link above.  I have the Passport, so I have access to more than just the free stuff, so I'm not completely sure. 

While we're on the subject, they've upgraded our risk for this evening from green to yellow, and I read that Reed is in Memphis for this one, 

so after enjoying a couple of cups of coffee by the fire this morning, 

I took the better part of valor and put everything back under cover for the duration.  In this case, it's the chance of hail I'm concerned about.  I don't want my new fire pit and chairs to be pulverized by falling balls of ice.  

I would really love to have a covered patio to put all of this stuff under so I don't have to worry about this type of thing.  Maybe someday...

After I'd gotten all of that squared away, I came inside and took a shower because between last night's fire and this morning's fire, I smelled pretty strongly of smoke.  Even though I'd moved the chair, the smoke followed me.  Ain't that always the way?  

Then I spent the rest of the day watching The Crown and Call The Midwife, and knitting.  I finished one charity hat, 

then I cast on another one while waiting for this evening's storms to arrive.   From what I can see, the worst is supposed to pass north of us, but it's weather.  

You can't ever tell. 

Saturday

I've been looking forward to this day all week.  

Saturday afternoon.  Nothing to do.  No clocks to watch.  

Freedom.  

Even Sunday can't compare, because I have to watch the clock...and wait to go back to work.  Dread going back to work...

But today...Saturday...it's all mine. 

It was such a beautiful day, even though we are expecting storms tomorrow, they aren't expected to be anything like last week's storms, so I went ahead and got the fire pit and other chair out of the shed and set them out in the back yard. 

I had a hard time finding a weed-free space big enough to put them in, so in the end, I had to sacrifice a patch of purple deadnettle, which I felt would be the best option because I have so much of it in the rest of the yard. 

I'm thinking later on, I might even start a little fire in the fire pit.  After it cools off a bit, of course.  It's too warm right now. 

I even tried to sit outside to write this blog post, but the sun is so bright I couldn't even see my computer screen, so I'm back inside for a bit.  By the way, I turned my Netflix account back on just to watch the documentary on the Joplin, MO tornado of 2011.  I had been so long since I turned it off that I had to create a whole new account.  I don't know how long I'll leave it on, but it will be long enough to finish watching The Crown.  I'd only see the first two seasons before I cut it off, so I'll probably just go back and start over. 

Same with Stranger Things.  I watched the first two seasons, then cut my Netflix off.  Of course, if we keep getting all of this overtime, I might just leave it on for a while.  

Since it was such a beautiful, sunny day, I put my seed tray with my three pitiful little seedlings out into the sunshine for about half an hour to start hardening them off.   

 I'm going to give the others one more week, then if nothing happens, I'll move the three that are growing to bigger pots, then knock all of this dirt out and start over.  I've ordered some hydroponic sponges from Amazon, and I'm going to try those to see if I get a better germination rate from them. 

I don't know what I'm going to plant, but it'll be something.  Maybe I'll follow Supervisor Green Jeans' lead and plant some tomatoes.  

Not 318 of them, but some.  

Now, if you'll be so kind as to excuse me, I've got some sitting to do. 

Outside.  

Laters. 

World Down Syndrome Day

For those of you who may not know, today is World Down Syndrome Day.  I have a coworker whose son has Down Syndrome, so every few years, her daughter -- who has a t-shirt business-- designs a new shirt for the occasion.    

Earlier this year my coworker and I were talking about getting new shirts, because it's been a minute, and I told her we want to have her son's name on the shirt to let everyone know who we're supporting.  Team Kel, that's what we want to be.  Unfortunately, she had something going on, and they didn't get the new shirts made.  I said, "It's OK.  We'll just wear the shirts we already have."  

When I got to work this morning, I told her, "I was going to make an announcement yesterday asking people to wear their shirts if they had one, but I got over there and started reading the post about the new PPE rules, and got so mad I completely forgot."

Yep, the new rules are pretty strict.  So much so, even the safety guy says they're over-reacting.  He said, "We want people to be safe, but you've got to have some common sense."  My thing is, if it's a safety issue, why did it take three decades for it to become such?  Wouldn't it have been a safety issue way back in 1992?  

The new rules go into effect Monday, and I'm hearing a lot of people are saying they're not coming back -- as in quitting.  I know when they took our insulated mugs away, about 40 people left the meeting and walked straight out the door.  I heard there were just as many who walked out on second shift.  

Seriously, I've never seen a company who works so hard at making their employees' hate their jobs.  It's getting unbearable, so much so, I was telling a coworker I might not make it to 65.  Walmart starts their employees at $17.50 per hour, so she might come into town one day and see me standing there saying, "Welcome to Walmart."  

Speaking of Walmart, I went after work and while I was there, I went into the garden center to see what they have in the way of live plants. The ones they had didn't look too sporty, so I didn't buy any.  I think the frost might have touched them.  I almost bought a packet of wildflower seeds to try to start in my little greenhouse, but I passed on that, too.  I'm still holding out hope -- probably in vain -- that more of my little bluebonnet seeds will germinate.  Right now, I've got two that have survived this far -- out of only five that germinated. 

 And one of my Bachelor's Button seeds is growing so far. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.  It's getting pretty discouraging that I plant and plant, and nothing ever grows.  

Supervisor Green Jeans stopped by my stand this afternoon and showed me his tomato seeds he'd started.  He's got a ton of them, and I can't even get wildflowers to grow.  I'm going to give these another week, and if nothing else grows, I'll plant something else.  

You know what they say about the definition of insanity.  I'm pretty sure I've crossed that line. 

First Day Of Spring

Happy first day of astronomical spring to those of you who celebrate it.  Me, I celebrate meteorological spring, because meteorology is better.  

Since we can't be normal in this country, on this the first day of spring, we are expecting a freeze tonight. I took a moment to bring in the few plants I had outside, though most of them were still in the house from last week's severe weather outbreak.  I left Marty Mac outside, but found a bit of leftover visqueen and covered him up.  

Venus Fly Traps can handle a frost, but it can damage newly forming leaves, so it's best to protect them.  

By the way, my French Tarragon is coming out, as is my peppermint, but so far, nothing else.  My sage and rosemary seem dot be doing fine, too, but no sign of life in the pepper plants.  They are perennials in their native habitats, but this may be too far north for them.  

While we're on the subject of weather,  check out how many air to ground lightning strikes were recorded from last weekend. 

You can't even see Mississippi through all of that.  On a similar note, The National Weather Service has confirmed that 18 tornadoes touched down on March 14 and 15 in Mississippi, including one EF-4, one EF-3, seven EF-2, seven EF-1, and two EF-0 tornadoes.

The one that hit Elliot was rated an EF-2.  The EF-4 and EF-3 both hit Taylortown.  Yes, both of them.  Their tracks are just a few miles apart.  Then there was the earthquake, which really isn't that much of a surprise given how close we are the the New Madrid Faultline.  Mississippi experiences more earthquakes than you might think.  

That's about all I have to talk about today.  There is a lot going on at work, but I don't really want to talk about it, because there is an ill wind blowing through the plant.  Whispers in the dark...

It's almost like they're looking for reasons to fire people.  The latest is that now we have to wear our gloves and arm guards at all times -- even to the bathroom and our lunch breaks.  Not only that, they're taking up all of the floor fans, because they say we don't need them -- not even when it hits 95 out there.  

If you ask me, the biggest problem out there is that there are too many bosses -- and too many people who aren't bosses, but want to be bosses, so they come out and try to boss people they've got no business bossing.  My stalker for example.  

Even when he was the brazing trainer, he seemed to think he was some sort of supervisor.  He even referred to himself as a supervisor.  Sometimes when we'd come in early, he'd come in too, claiming that he was there to make sure we were actually working and not just coming in and standing around. 

He's got a new job, by the way.   Nobody really knows what he's supposed to be doing, but he loves those kinds of jobs where he gets paid a lot of money to basically do nothing because he's lazy.  Back when he got demoted from being the brazing trainer, they put him over there with us sub-brazing.  He probably didn't do but about 50 headers per day.  We're supposed to do 200+.  I was constantly having to pull off of my work to bail him out because he'd get so far behind.

Then he got that job in the prototype shop, and they really didn't want him back there, either.  The job was supposed to go to the other applicant, but his supervisor refused to release him from his job on the assembly line.  So, they had to give it to Stalker, even though they didn't want to.   Word on the shop floor is that they wanted to get rid of him, and somehow, instead of getting fired, he got a promotion.

The buddy system protected him once again, the same way it did back when all of those women were bringing sexual harassment charges against him.   And there were a lot of them.  I know we joke about him being my stalker, but he's harassed a lot of women.  I've heard absolute horror stories from when he'd get women alone in that training center -- from asking explicitly detailed questions about how they like to have sex, all the way to threatening not to pass them if they didn't give him a little something first.  

Probably the most common complaint was that he'd lay right up on their backs as they were brazing, and I believe that because he did it to me.  Once. 

I can neither confirm nor deny that I may or may not in my enthusiasm to do my job well... accidentally elbowed him in the gut a couple of times.  

Accidentally, of course.  I would never do that on purpose.  But he learned to back his butt up. 

As I said before, he was turned in and multiple women came forward, but as I also said, he's protected by the buddy system, though I can't imagine why.  The only one who lost a job during that whole situation was the HR director who wanted to fire Stalker.  

Well, I did not mean to get off onto that tangent.  I'd intended to talk about something completely different, but that will have to wait, as I still need to practice my piano.  And I really need to do a piano related post anyway.  I'm thinking about doing a vlog.  

Maybe I will.  You never know. 

Protect Your Melon

So there I was, in the middle of a tornado warning, sitting in my bathroom wrapped up in an extra comforter with a pillow on my head. 

(Reenactment)

As I was eating my pudding -- because if I'm going to die in a tornado, I'm not going to do it with uneaten pudding in my house -- I said to myself, "Self, you really need to get a helmet to protect your melon."  

Because I can't go down to the local Walmart and get a bicycle helmet like a normal human being, I whipped out my phone, found what I wanted, and placed my order.  

Which arrived today. 

 Yep, that's right.  I am now the proud owner of an authentic replica WWII steel helmet.  

Because I gotta be me. 

Catch Up Day

Sunday was a bit of a catch - up day for me, what with the tornadoes and all on Saturday.  And there were a lot of them.  One of the meteorologists I follow posted this graphic, showing the tornado warnings for Saturday. 

Then one of the storm chasers said there were 248 tornado warnings for Friday and Saturday, and that's not including the ones from Sunday.  

Now, keep in mind, just because there was a warning issued doesn't mean there was an actual tornado on the ground.  It just means radar indicated possible rotation developing.  They're still doing damage surveys, so we don't know exactly how many tornadoes there were.  Ryan Hall said at least 56 over the three day period.  He also posted this graphic of all the watches and warnings issued.

I'm not sure what all of the colors mean, though.  The red ones are tornado warnings, and I'm pretty sure all of the yellow ones were watches of various kinds.  I think the green is flash flood, but I don't know what the purple is.  Maybe costal flooding.  I don't know.  I wish he'd have posted a key, but oh well.  Even so, that's a lot of weather that happened.  

And as if all of that weren't enough, look what we have here...

That's a tropical disturbance, but it has very low chances of developing at the moment.  Even if it does, likely the water would be too cold for it to survive long.  

All that to say, I spent Sunday doing the chores I normally do on Saturday -- mostly laundry, because I was afraid to start a load until the storms had passed.  It's a good thing I did because the electricity did go out, and by the time it came back on, I felt it was too late to start any.  So I put it off until Sunday.  Not that you are that interested in my laundry...so here's a little more interesting thing.  

I cast on a new charity hat with the yarn I got out of the free stuff they were giving away up in Oxford at the fiber arts festival. 

After knitting so many from sock yarn, it's almost a relief at how quickly worsted weight knits up. 

Really, the only other thing I did was to get my hummingbird feeders washed, filled, and hung up outside.  I put one in the usual spot in the front yard.  

And I hung a second one in the back yard, near my other bird feeder. 

Just look at that beautiful blue sky in the background, being all sunny and cheerful like it didn't just try to kill us all the day before. It was still gorgeous when I got home from work today, so I sat in my chair outside for a little while.

On an impulse, I grabbed my bucked of daffodil bulbs and planted a few more.  I've still got a lot to go, but we're getting there.  I grumble and grouse about how I'm going to be sore, and blah blah blah...

then I see this, 

and suddenly it's all worth it. 

That Was Interesting

I was at work this morning, just dragging.  I wasn't the only one, either.   Brazers, people in the bathroom, even Uncle Supervisor...all complaining about being tired.  At one point, I even sat down and said to Group Leader Shark, "Why can't tornadoes come during the day?"

"I know, right!" she responded.  And that was the whole issue. Storms, all night long. 

I'd stayed awake longer than I normally do anyway, watching Ryan Hall's livestream, and keeping up with the local forecast on my phone.  Finally, I turned everything off and drifted off to sleep around 9:00.  

Shortly after 11:30 is when all the alarms on my phone started going off.  

Quickly, I grabbed said phone and opened it up to see what was going on.  A lot of these warnings are radar indicated upper level rotation, but not this one.  Confirmed tornado on the ground is what this one said.  Headed towards Grenada county, it said.  

Taking the better part of valor, I picked up my Kindle and phone, then went into the hall bathroom -- the most interior room of my house -- which I had prepped earlier in the day with an extra comforter and several pillows to wait out the storm. I was soon joined by a very nervous kitty, and together we turned on Ryan Hall's livestream on the Kindle and Matt Laubhan's stream on Facebook Live on my phone. 

Then I had to go back to the bedroom to get my glasses so I could see...but by then, I could tell the tornado was going to pass to the south of us -- and hit the little community of Elliot, about 10 miles away.  

We watched until the internet dropped, whereupon I had to turn off the Kindle and switch the phone to cellular data, then kept watching until Matt said, "If you're in Grenada proper, you can come out of your safe space now."  

I went back to bed, but didn't go back to sleep until probably 2:00 AM.  

When that alarm went off at 3:30, I almost called in and stayed home, but I didn't.  I got up and went to work anyway.   Everything was going along swimmingly, until lunch time.  There we were, sitting in the break area eating our lunch, when suddenly Group Leader Shark jumped up and started shouting, "Shelter!  Go to the shelter!" 

So, we all went to the shelter and everybody's phones were going off, and the plant's severe weather alarm started going off, and we stayed in the shelter until the warning expired and we were allowed to go back and finish our lunch break.  

About 15 minutes later, lunch was over and I had just gotten back to my brazing stand when a coworker came around the corner and said, "BECKY!  Shelter!!  Back to the shelter!"  

And just like that, we were back in the shelter.  

Not ten minutes later, the powers that be called it and sent everyone home.  I don't even live that far from the plant, but before I even got home, I was getting another tornado warning on my phone.  I went into the house, opened up Facebook and found Matt's livestream, which showed an area of rotation headed straight for Grenada.  Back into the safe space we went, the cat and I, to wait this one out.  

I can neither confirm nor deny that I may have gone to look out the window more than once, though I didn't go outside because it was raining too hard.  It didn't take long -- maybe half an hour-- and the storm passed and we came out.  Well, I did.  The Incarnation of Evil was all settled in and comfortable. 

We had a couple more rounds of thunderstorms after that, but no more tornadic activity, but then the power went out.  All throughout the whole mess, starting just before midnight last night, the power didn't even flicker.  It was when everything was basically over that the power went out.  I'm thinking it might have been a tree or branch on the lines or something, because they got it back on in about two hours.  

By that time, the internet was also back up, so I was able to get online and see that we did have a little funnel cloud pass over near here.  I don't know that it ever touched down, but it was definitely a funnel.  

It would be several more hours and several more tornadoes before the storm cleared the state, but that was pretty much it for this area.  

And as if all of this weather weren't enough,  we had an earthquake down in the southern part of the state. 

 So, how was your day?  

HazCam!

 We have a hazcam!  

I knew we were supposed to get one, and now we do!  It went live just in time for Saturday's severe weather.  I tried to embed it, but apparently that's not an option.  I even checked to see if there was a live feed on YouTube, but I couldn't find it.  I don't know if they're going to put one up or not, but for now, it's not on there.  If you want to view it, you can click the link below. 

Click Here:  HazCam

It's going to come in mighty handy during severe weather season.  

Thank you to North Mississippi Storm Chasers and Spotters for getting it installed, and to the radio station for sponsoring it.  Wouldn't it be a hoot if Ryan Hall tapped into it during the live stream this weekend? 

Except that I'll be at work Saturday, and wouldn't be able to see it anyway...

OK, I know this is short, but last night was another one of those tossing and turning and not sleeping nights, so I'm a bit tuckered.  I'm going to go practice my piano, then go to bed and hope for the best.

Goodnight. 

Does Anyone Still Knit?

Does anyone out there still knit?  

Seriously, do you?  Most of you in my FB friends list came from a knitting site, except for family and schoolmates, of course.  That's how we all met, but I hardly ever see any of you posting your knitting projects any more, except for one or two of you. So, really?  Do you still knit or am I in this by myself? 

On that note, here is hat progress.  

This is the yarn I bought at the thing up in Oxford.  It's from Holly Dyeworks and the colorway is Folk School Engagement.    

I wish I had more time and energy to knit -- and to do all the other things I need to get done, as well.  My friend told me my system is overtaxed, and that's why I don't have any energy.  The problem is, I don't know how to get my system untaxed.  I try to eat right and motivate myself to exercise, but nothing seems to work.  I just stay exhausted all the time.  I do know that quitting my job would definitely help, but I can't seem to find anyone who will pay my bills so I can do that. 

Oh, and by the way, it's been just over a week since I figured out my vitamins may be affecting my morning glucose readings, and I'm happy to report that since then, said readings are much more normal -- usually right around 100.  

In other news, the big weather event is supposed to happen Saturday, but we're also expecting storms tomorrow, with the possibility of hail, so this afternoon I took the precaution of bringing the plants back inside, along with my chair and table. 

 I've got to find a better place to put my chair -- outside, I mean.  It was nice to sit out in the sun when it was a bit cooler, but now it's getting too warm for that.  Of course, I can't wait until later in the evening, because of those later sunsets you all go ga ga over.  When you get up at 3:30 in the blessed Ay Em, you don't get to stay up late enough to enjoy them. 

Speaking of, it's about time for me to head for bed, and I still haven't practiced my piano, so I'd better get to that.  

Laters. 

The End

It looks like our days of getting off at 1:00 have come to an end.  Boo!  I was enjoying getting off early.  On the other hand, overtime.  

Another downside is, these last couple of days have been absolutely gorgeous and I'm stuck inside a hot, muggy, filthy plant instead of outside in it.  Yesterday, I had to run into town to pay a bill and the lady in line in front of me said, "It's such a beautiful day after what came though last night!"

"Oooo, yes!" I agreed.  "That was something.  I was already asleep and like to have come out the bed!"

We were talking about the thunderstorms that rolled through late Sunday night, and let me tell you, that thunder was loud!  It kind of reminded me of when that building on the square exploded last year.  They still haven't gotten that all cleaned up, by the way.

But yeah, I didn't last long, but it was pretty noisy while it was passing over. Someone even posted photos in one of the local weather watcher groups of graupel that fell at her house.   It always amazes me how skies that were so full of death and destruction can be so stunningly beautiful the next day. 

They were so beautiful, when I got home, I went and sat outside instead of writing you a blog post.  That's why you didn't get one.  All I was going to do was complain about daylight saving time and show you my new DVD. 

The Chosen season 4 special edition set, to go with the first three.  This is one series I'm definitely going to have in hard copy.  

And as for Daylight Saving Time, I'm not a fan.  Every year there is talk about making it permanent, but most people these days are too young to remember that we did that once before, back in the 70s.  Everyone thought it was the greatest thing -- those 9:00 PM sunsets.  More time for the rich and retired to sit on the beach and sip Margaritas and all.  

But then, Fall came.  The days shortened -- as they always do.  I guess they don't teach the seasons in schools any more...  Eventually, the sun was setting at 5:30 anyway, and even worse, in some parts of the Lower 48, wasn't rising until 10:00.  I mean, I guess that's OK if you're a Tik Tok influencer and sleep until noon anyway, but people having to put their kids out on the side of the road to wait for the school bus in the pitch darkness weren't so keen on it.  Once people realized what they'd done to themselves, they raised such a hue and cry that they changed it back.  

Don't get me wrong.  I'll all for doing away with changing the time twice a year, but leave it on standard time.  

Today was just as gorgeous, but I didn't sit in the chair.  Instead, I grabbed my bucket of daffodil bulbs and put a few more into the ground.  I've still got a bunch to go, but I'm making progress.  By the way, the purple deadnettle is in full bloom, and there are bees everywhere. 

That's why I never mow until the deadnettle dies back.  It's as important to the bees as clover is -- if not more.  And hopefully, I won't have any trespassing neighbors mow it all down this year. 

So, a few more beautiful days and we have more severe weather on the horizon for this coming weekend.  Welcome to springtime in the south...

And finally, we had a bit of a tragedy here in my little town.  One of the local businesses, Hankin's Lumber Company, burned to the ground early this morning.  It took them several hours to put the fire out, and I'm hearing it's a total loss.  They employed a lot of people in this community, including my across-the-street neighbor.  

Now, I need to go practice my piano a bit before going to bed.  I don't know what set the cat off last night, but she was restless and yowling all night long.  Needless to say, neither one of us slept well.

I'm hoping tonight will be a better night.