Early?

Yes--an 8 AM dr. appointment, and that's not the first of the day--I had a 7:30 appointment once.

Things moved fairly quickly today, so I was out of there before 9 o'clock. He seemed pleased at the progress my recalcitrant hip has (finally) made, and I don't see him again for three months.

I had sort of figured on most of the morning being devoted to the appointment, so there I was at 9 AM without any specific plans for the day. (Clean the house and work on the yard don't count. Those are always waiting for me.) Yesterday I'd added a couple bags more of old newspapers to the collection already in the back of my car, so I headed out to the recycle center, only to find it closed on Monday.

I headed back to town and swung by a McDonald's for a cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun. I'd started reading Transgressions 4, which is a collection of three novellas by well-known authors. I'd read the one by Sharyn McCrumb last night. This morning I began the one by Anne Perry. I read some at the doctor's office, more at McDonald's, and then went to PJ's and finished it off. The third is by Joyce Carol Oates, and I'd never read anything by her. I was not impressed by her sort of stream of consciousness style. I quit after about four pages. But I really got my money's worth from McCrumb and Perry!

Shortly after I finally got home the sky began to darken. And the TV was running tornado warnings for St. Tammany Parish (mine) and and a couple of other parishes and Mississippi counties.

It darkened really quickly, began to rain, and the next thing the wind picked up and it was raining sideways. I wasn't too concerned about a possible tornado, because Slidell was pretty far east of the projected path. I did hear a clunk as a tree fell somewhere. It was probably one that was half dead and semi-toppled from Katrina. (My west side neighbor has several.) There were no accompanying sounds of breaking wood, as there would have been had it hit a building.

Now it's clearing up a bit, and by tomorrow the weather should be fine. Glad I wasn't driving in it.

Tomorrow is Election Day. My polling place is a school, and this makes voting a real pain in the neck when it's a federal election. They don't give the kids the day off (at least they haven't in the past) and it's really hard to find a place to park. All Louisiana elections (except the ones for Federal offices) are on Saturdays, and this makes things incredibly convenient for voters. (Thank you Huey.) I'm spending the evening trying to guess what will be the best time to go vote. Not when the polls open at 6 AM--people voting before work will be there. Not after about 5 PM--those who couldn't make it in the AM will be there. I think I'll try about 10 or 11 AM.

And TV tomorrow night will not exactly be exciting.

Oh well, there's always reading.