Back to Summer Thunderstorms!

Now that I'm living in SC again, I get to experience summer thunderstorms once again. Most of the time I enjoy them. Wednesday was one of my scariest. I left work hearing the constant thunder in the distance and the moment I got in my car it started raining. I could see sheets of rain in the direction I was heading but had to go that way anyway. At the first intersection, I have a choice and I usually turn left. The light turned green and I noticed there were too many cars int he turning lane to make the light so I opted to go straight. The moment I entered the intersection the rain came even harder. I couldn't go above 20 mph. As I continued forward, the rain just kept pelting my car and it was really difficult to see. I had to keep slowing down and was going about 10 mph. All of a sudden there was a huge gust of wind. I noticed some minor debris floating around and then my windshield was completely white with water. I had to stop and for half a minute I thought there might be a tornado right in front of me. It was pretty scary. It eased up a bit and I slowly inched forward. About 20 yards in front of me, half of a pine tree had come tumbling down over a powerline and on top of a pick up truck. A police officer was in the lane next to me and stopped to help. The driver in the truck seemed to be ok but the tree and debris had scattered over almost all 4 lanes. Five minutes later I was home and by the time I was exiting my car the rain was stopping. Crazy!
What I learned ... when driving in a bad thunderstorm, try to stay as close to the middle of the road as possible. The truck that got hit by the tree had been in the right lane.

Report on WIS

ATLX and other stuff

I've been crazy busy lately. Lots has been going on. The dog training is going well and I start the last part of my externship on April 28. I also have to do 10 hours of volunteer work in a local animal shelter.
Mostly I've been busy getting my dad to all his appointments. He has stopped his chemotherapy for now. He's been having trouble walking because of an old knee injury, so he's now doing physical therapy twice a week. His knees and hips have already improved from all his hard work.

Last weekend I traveled to Atlanta for a weekend full of swing dancing. ATLX (Atlanta Lindy Exchange) was a lot of fun and it felt good to be dancing so much again. Got to dance with old friends and met a lot of new friends! The theme this year was Dance Nerdy with Me and the main dance on Saturday night was so much fun. Not only was everyone really dressed up, but the band was awesome!

My friend Allen and me ... such geeks ... I mean nerds ...

I miss you Mystic!!!!

Last week there were lots of trips to the vet, and we finally had to say goodbye to Mystic. It was a sad decision, but his illness with his colon finally got the better of him. We are lucky that his medicine worked for as long as it did.
Mystic adopted me when I was living in Atlanta, GA. One extremely foggy night I had stopped at the mailbox on the way home to my apartment. I had stopped to look up at the fog, since I hadn't seen it so thick in a long time. I looked down at my feet and there was a cute little white kitten at my feet staring up at me expectantly. I picked him up, petted him and looked around. To this day I have no idea where he came from. He followed me to my apartment and of course I let him in.
He slept on a pillow next to me that night and he purred the loudest I've ever heard. I had no idea a kitten that little could purr so loud! I should have taken that as a clue to how big he would become! He turned out to be a 16lb teddy bear of cuddliness!
I introduced him to Sasha hoping they would get along and instantly they became friends ... as if they were long lost brothers.
I have lots of pictures of Mystic sleeping of which I'll post a few below. The fact that he was so big and that he liked to sleep on his back, made for some cute and funny sleeping positions. I had to snap a picture when I found him in such a position. One of the places we would find him frequently is under the covers on my parents' bed.

No, it's not a stuffed pillow!

We bought him a new bed last year which he stretched out in frequently.

I wonder where Mystic could be?

We were searching the house for him and stumbled upon him taking a nap.

Happy New Year!

Well, it's been officially 2009 for 9 days now and it's about time I write another entry.
Lots has happened since I moved back to Columbia, SC ... well, enough to keep me busy anyhow. I have yet to finish unpacking all my boxes, which I aim to do by next week some time. I haven't really looked for a job yet. I have kind of sort of, but haven't focused on it yet. Everything has seemed semi chaotic since I moved here. Helping my parents with rides and such has made me very happy to be able to help them, but it seems things constantly come up. My mom lost 2 crowns and needed to have both teeth pulled ... then she lost another one last week and had to get a root canal. I planned on staying in my apartment as much as possible this weekend next week to finish getting my boxes unpacked and start looking for a job and after taking my dad to the doc yesterday, have to now take him back every day for a shot until Monday. So, as crazy as everything seems, I will force myself to have my apartment done by next weekend!
Christmas was wonderful! It was a little sad because Miko wasn't here to enjoy it with us. I think Zoey really misses him. But overall it was cozy with lots of good food. And the weather was nice ... low 70s!
For New Year's Eve, I jumped in the car and headed down to Atlanta to bring in the new year with friends. I had a blast! And was very happy to discover that Trader Joe's is now in Atlanta! So I made sure to stop by and stock up on some of my favorites that I'm missing!
So, that's all that's going on with me for now.
Somewhat chaotic, somewhat boring!