Blogging the Weather (Updated again)

The rain has come in on the heels of thunder and lightning. M asked me if the thunder was clapping for her and Sassy and I said, "Sure, honey." Except when my beautiful daughter got an expression of deep emotion and said, "Oh, Mommy, that is so sweet," I had to adjust my answer because she was sounding a wee bit too schizo for me.

I went riding this morning, five miles, I'd have gone more but the lightning freaked me out. Images kept coming to me of the eucalyptus trees getting hit and falling over me and my red mountain bike, cell phone ringing and ringing in the little pouch.

The rain is coming down hard now. D is reading by the window a Stephen Coonts book, I'm reading "Trails of the Angeles," and J is bickering again with A over which "Destroy all Humans" file A is playing on the Playstation. Damn it, A has emerged from the room and is starting to pick on M who is so happily watching PBS Sprout.

We've got to get out of here but D doesn't want to deal with the beach traffic. Not that I blame him. High humidity and 100 degree weather drive everyone to the same places. We're crowd-loathers.

J's tics have gotten bad again - we're starting him on a new medicine, clonodine. It's a patch we bandaid to his chest because the sticky patch it comes with...well...it sucks. It might be my imagination but I think there's some improvement - instead of him sounding out every twenty seconds, I believe he's going for entire minutes in silence. Tuesday we have an appointment with a neurologist since his psychiatrist has run out of ideas.

I asked A to read a book and he's crying, "I wanted nachos but you guys won't let me because you guys are mean!"

"You're not getting any more food until you've read for fifteen minutes."

"Stop forcing me to read! I'll read when I'm older!"

He's reading now. Anything for food...ahhh my dearest A.

I love summer! Updating later.

(Update) Our dog is a hunter, a growling, black, hot dog of a hunter. We found the little beast at our back door with a bird in her mouth. The screams! The running! The search for something to pick up the feathered carcass with! Wheee!!

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

I took a nap - found myself keeling over at three because I watched Quills last night at one in the morning. Didn't get to sleep until after three. Have no idea why, but the insomnia took me and made me her bitch. I mean, I was in bed at 10:30 or so and was on my way to the land of nod...but nooooo....

The movie was a good one - fantastic performances. Interesting story. Worth a rental, I think, if you've got a strong stomach for a bit of gore. I enjoyed the movie so much I watched the Forty Year Old Virgin this afternoon, why we waited for our dinner to cook. Dumb but I did laugh. The language is horrific...in that cheap-laugh way.

Also managed a trip to Trader Joe's for entrees - lots of frozen stuff and organic food in my continuing quest to eat better, such as carrot juice, 100% vegan buttery spread, wheat pita bread, organic hummus, organic apple sauce, and organic marinara sauce for our wheat-free, gluten free noodles.

J took a nap, too, but most likely it's from the meds. He also hung out with a friend of his in front our house, commenting that she just isn't the same anymore. I asked what was different about her.

"She's weird."

"But what exactly is weird? Be specific."

"She's just...all positive. Like everything she says is...optomistic."

"I shudder."

"Yeah...like...I told you she's really weird after her two years in the psychiatric hospital."

Shhh...I hear M screaming at A...something about a yo-yo, about her teeth, about the dentist. Oh dinner's done. Off to gather veggies out of my organic garden...no, I'm kidding. I'm opening some frozen veggies for the microwave. Hopefully all those stories about the death rays comeing from innocent-looking microwave ovens aren't true.

Remind me to tell you later about the Christian luncheon I attended recently with the lady who loved afternoon tea. Amazing tale of flowery napkins, mismatched tea cups and saucers, lacy dresses on elderly ladies, and finding Jesus.

(Epilogue) I always try to encourage my children to do for themselves as they have a tendency to treat me like their personal servant. So I do need to commend my son, A, who is learning to play the bass guitar, for gathering up his amp and trying to plug it into the living room's electrical outlet without asking me. There was only one problem - a plastic plug cover on the outlet prevented easy access. Seeing an obstacle, he did what any intelligent person would do when plastic blocks access. He went into the kitchen and got a dinner knife. He sat down on the carpet and wedged the knife in between the plastic cover and the outlet...

...yes, the little self-doer...

There was a rather large-ish explosion of sparks, a wide-eyed child shaking his head in a wordless claim of innocence, and a knife with melted stainless steel along its edge. Oh yeah, the circuit blew, too. Oh the commotion that ensued - screams, J's calling A names like idiot, stupid, etc., proper scolding.

We have a learned a lesson: not all self-doing is a good idea. When electricity and knives are involved, ask an adult for help.

Well, I'm signing off. I don't think our day will have much more drama. A and I are going for a walk with the dog, we'll all have ice cream, there'll be baths, then bed. Then...yadda, yadda, yadda...the billion-degree sun will rise tomorrow morning as it always does.