I thought about you all last night. And Helen, I was up about the same time you were. The TV weather picture was a sea of red and boy, was there water coming down! I had just shy of 3 inches in the rain gauge. My car trunk in the garage is covered with plants ready to go out, and I had even planted a darling little Supersweet 100 tomato a couple days ago. I knew better-- She got covered with some loose straw and a pot over her this evening. Surely our drought has been broken. I wondered this AM if I should be boiling water, as the last time we had that much water, it was after the tornado. But I thought maybe Folger's would take care of everything, and apparently there wasn't an order out after all. Not one tulip bloom was shattered, nor were any dogwood blooms knocked off, so all we had was rain. The thunder and lightning was terrible, though. "Our" storm pushed off east and made some big trouble today. So sorry. And I'm real sorry I didn't mow earlier! Sunny

I once had a hanging basket that had upwards of 30 or more blooms at once. This was in the days before digital cameras and I had no film in my old 35 mm. I had been watching the buds for days, and then one night about 10:30 I smelled the most delicious fragrance wafting in the bedroom window. It was blooming! Bob was asleep, the neighbor's lights were out so I had no one to share the magical event with. As Jim says all were gone by early morning. But I'll never forget it! People often thought it was a stag horn fern as it hung from low branches of a pecan tree by the pool. It was a huge and heavy thing and I'd lug it in the family room for the winter. One winter I didn't take it down in time to save it from freezing. :-( Oh well, beauty like fame is sometimes very fleeting, but I'm thankful for the memory.

I was a fan of Luke and Margie but after last night's show I want them gone. Mommy dearest isn't doing that young man any favors by enabling him. I didn't care for his little hissy fits before but just thought it was editing. Now I think they've been editing to make him look good. They came on the show, they claim, to show that deaf people are just like everyone else and continue over and over again to play the "deaf" card and to top it off bring "race" into it at the mat. I do think the sisters were having a hard time not laughing at him but it was because of his childish behavior not because he was deaf! At first I thought it was just editing but no matter how you look at what happened Lukie can do anything because just in case nobody noticed "he's deaf" after all. I'm surprised the sister he hit didn't just cold cock him. She showed a lot of restraint. Mommy appears to think it's OK for Lukie to hit women. Bet 'lil Lukie kicked her as a child and she let it go because he's frustrated because "he's deaf" after all. Never taught the kid boundaries. The cheerleaders are looking better and better. They're showing more of a sense of humor. I really like watching the Chinese brother and sister developing a better working relationship. They'd get the trophy for most improved were I giving them out. I would love to see them win. In spite of the brothers ineptness and stupid mistakes I don't think any other team enjoyed the adventure more. Mommy needs to let Lukie out of the bubble and he needs to grow up. he's got a tough life ahead of him if something doesn't change and his deafness will be the least of his problems.

Thank you, everyone. A friend told me this morning that she once hit a dog very hard, and he turned out to be okay. I recalled reading years ago about cats' extreme flexibility. Maybe that helped. I hope so. Vicki, what a sad story. We always see turtles crossing roads this time of year. One spring I drove past a fairly big one, and pulled off the road to walk back and get him off the road before he got hit. I wasn't far from him when a Corvette came along and ran over him. It looked to me like it was intentional. That turtle had a lot of tears shed for him.