It was a dark and stormy day…

I woke up at my usual early time – 5 a.m. – and had coffee while Cat got some lap time. I waited for the sky to brighten and the sun to come up. Ha! It had other ideas. The sky was full of dark clouds that obscured the sun. And it rained a bit. So much for my morning exploratory walk. I had planned on walking more of the lake’s shoreline.

This would be a good time to get more of my writing work done. RVs and vehicles pulling trailered boats have been coming in. As I expected, this park gets really busy on the weekends. I’m glad to be in a great site and settled.

I just had a phone call from Emy telling me that she would be here tomorrow by noon. Yippee! I sure hope the weather clears up so we can be out and about.

The motorhome nearest to me (a brand new Newmar that truly is a rolling castle) is owned by Brenda and Wayne Guillory from Lafayette, LA. I visited with Brenda while Wayne hopped into their tow vehicle to backtrack and see if he can find the tailpipe that fell off somewhere between Ft. Sumner and here. No luck, but he plans to fabricate a temporary one.

2 p.m. The ranger just came by to let me know that we are under a “severe thunderstorm watch.” He said, the storm, with high winds, lightning and damaging hail, is fifty miles west of here near the small town of Vaughn – and headed this way. Batten down the hatches!

I brought my outside chairs, the bird feeder and my small rug inside; then I decided to unplug my electricity and run on batteries until the storm is over. I’m not sure why I did it, but it seemed the thing to do.

By 3 o’clock it was raining and I could hear thunder in the distance. I saw blue sky to the east, and a dark, angry sky to the northwest. The lake is topped with whitecaps.

It is 4 o’clock; the sun is shining overhead. The storm appears to have passed from west to east north of us. I’ve been out looking for a rainbow, but none in sight. Two more RVs just came into the camping area. (NOTE: The same ranger came by later in the day to say that he didn’t know it at the time, but there were two storms that were expected to converge in this general area.)

The deer just wandered by headed toward the lake, so I’m putting on my jacket and heading down there, too.

Phooey, I only saw two deer. I have better luck watching them come through the campground in the early morning and early evening. This morning two of them walked just 10 feet from Jeremiah. It is quite windy. This campground (only 12 sites) is full; some RVs are parked along the lake edge in primitive areas.

On my way back I struck up a conversation with two men who were hooking up their fishing boat. That’s when I found out that there is a fishing tournament this weekend at Sumner Lake. The event starts at 6 a.m. each morning, and the teams (two people per team) can fish until 3 p.m. So, guess where I’ll be before 6 tomorrow morning? Yep, down at the boat launch area.

I’m looking forward to a great day tomorrow – spending time with Emy.

Now, in honor of my advancing age, I give you two old-lady jokes:

1.Reporters interviewing a 104-year-old woman: "And what do you think is the best thing about being 104?" the reporter asked. She simply replied, "No peer pressure."

2. Just before the funeral services, the undertaker came up to the very elderly widow and asked, "How old was your husband?"

"98," she replied. "Two years older than me."

"So you're 96," the undertaker commented.

She responded, "Hardly worth going home, is it?”