April 8, 2006

April 8, 2006

Knoxville, Tennessee

YEAR 2 DAY 295

 

The thunderstorm, with heavy rain, thunder and lightning, persisted throughout the night. The power went off twice during the night, for a couple of hours each time. Last night's storms, which included tornadoes, took the lives of 12 more people in central Tennessee, bringing the total to 36 deaths due to weather in less than a week here in Tennessee. We had no idea when we came here that Tennessee has such severe spring weather. One of the things that we find quite amazing about our travels is how much of the United States has "killer" weather. That has strongly influenced our decision to put a deposit on an RV lot in Yuma, Arizona. Yuma is too far east to be subject to the earthquakes of California. It's too far west to be subject to the horrific hurricanes of the Gulf Of Mexico. Most importantly, it's too far south to have snow. Woo-Hoo !

I've had a colitis flare-up that started a week or so ago, and has been getting progressively worse. The thunder, lightning, scared animals, and colitis kept me up for most of the night. At 7:00 A.M. there was a brief break in the rain, so I took the opportunity to take Bo out for a walk. When we returned, I was tired, cold and wet. I fell asleep until after noon.

When I woke, the storm was finally over. I felt weak, so I spent much of the afternoon watching interesting shows on the Animal Planet network. We have cable TV in this campground, and it's a chance to watch some of the cable networks like Animal Planet that we don't get to see very often. This somewhat wasted time waiting ( again ! ) for the truck to be repaired is an opportunity to do some "spring cleaning". We cleaned and purged the junk drawer in the bedroom. We cleaned and purged the dishes cupboard over the sink. It was a bit crowded, and there was stuff in there that we just never use. Some stuff got discarded, and some stuff got taken to the bargain table in the clubhouse. We gave away all the tea cups and saucers from the set of dishes that Joanne's parents gave us as a wedding present ... geeeeez ... 32 years ago ! We rotated the mattress we bought 6 months ago on Vancouver Island. That's a lot more work than it sounds like. Remove the bedding, remove the heated mattress pad, open the zippered mattress cover, remove the mattress topper section, flip the mattress within the confined space of our bedroom, replace the mattress topper section, carefully align the 2 mattress sections within the cover and get the zipper closed ( difficult, because the mattress sections are 8.5 inches thick, in an 8 inch mattress cover ), replace the heated mattress pad, and replace the bedding. AND ... wrestle to keep Teddy and Bo out of the bedroom while we're doing this. They both hate to be left out of such an interesting activity as rotating a mattress ! I removed the shower faucets, and Joanne cleaned inside and behind the faucets. I started today's journal entry. We took Bo for an obedience session. I took our surplus dishes to the bargain table, and traded them for a hooded, zippered sweater that fit me. I will use it as an addition to my "grubby work" clothes.

I was feeling quite lethargic today, so I spent the next few hours lying on the couch watching Discovery Health and Animal Planet shows. Joanne made Cheesy Jambalaya for supper. It was very good. I worked on today's journal entry while Joanne washed dishes. I went to the laundry room to get online, send and retrieve e-mail, and update my blog. I returned to the trailer and worked on our personal income tax returns for an hour or so. Boy, I'm pretty rusty on doing income taxes. The last time I did our personal income taxes by myself was 1989 !

DSK