A What?

I swan...

If you're from the South, you know what that means.  You will also know what "I swanee" means, too.  If you're not, I don't know if I can explain it to you. 

Nevertheless, I swan...I take these weekends off to get stuff done, and so far it's rained every one of them.  Two weeks ago, it was Hurricane Francine.  This week, it's Hurricane Helene.  

Next week, it just might be Joyce.  

I'd originally thought I might drive up to Batesville and walk the trails at the Mounds, but when I saw the forecast, that plan went out the window.  Then I thought I'd go walk the trails out at the lake, but by the time I finished my coffee, it had already started raining, so I just stayed home and piddled around the house, but more about that later. 

A funny thing happened yesterday that I have to tell you about.  I left work early to go to the dentist, but that's not the funny part.  I had a good check-up for once.  No cavities or anything to be concerned about.  After my appointment, I thought to myself, "I'm already in town.  Might as well go to Walmart and get my shopping done."  But that's not the funny part, either. 

So, I get my shopping done and come on home, only to find the electricity was out -- but only on my road.  I got the message from Entergy that it had already been reported, so I sat down to wait until it came back on.  Figuratively speaking of course.  I didn't really just sit.  I piddled in the yard a bit, deadheading some of my spider lilies, adding stuff to my compost bin -- that sort of thing.  I thought I might paint a little on my fence, but remembered my paint sprayer runs on electricity.  Then I thought, "Hey, I'll go ahead and power wash my back porch...oh, wait..."  so I came inside and knit until it was too dark to see, after which I read a few chapters in my book on my Kindle -- Stormy, Misty's Foal, if you're wondering.  

About two hours after the outage began, I got the message that a lineman had arrived.  I guess most of them are down in Florida, so they only have a skeleton crew still here, and had to wait for someone to get here.  Once he'd arrived, he got the power back on relatively quickly, just in time for the ball game.  

Cowboys won, by the way, even though it was a very sloppy win. 

I finished the hat I'd been working on, 

 and cast on another. 

Sometime during the third quarter, I got an update on the power outage.  It had been caused by an animal.  

That's a new one on me. They didn't specify, but my guess would be a squirrel.  Those things aren't good for anything but eating.  Me eating them, I mean.  They do make for good eating.  I just hope I can get some this season. 

By the way, the refs threw so many flags in the football game, that even Al Michaels quipped that they had to get onto Amazon and order more.  

So, back to today...It started raining about 9:00 AM and hasn't stopped yet.  Yes, this is from Helene as she drags her skirts behind her.  We're fortunate, though, that we're only getting some wind and rain.  The images I'm seeing out of Florida and the Carolinas are absolutely devastating.  Our thoughts and prayers certainly go out to them. 

Since I couldn't really do anything, I got onto Facebook and found out Dame Maggie Smith had died, so I've been re-watching Downton Abbey from the beginning in her honor.  I don't normally get all upset over celebrities, but she was so talented and I loved her as The Dowager Countess.  

After getting this far into the post, it suddenly occurred to me that you don't really want to hear about me washing my shower curtain, so I'm going to end this and go get something to eat.  I bought some Everything Bagel seasoning, and that stuff is so good, I'm absolutely going to make some pasta and put it on it.  

Laters.