I should have gotten up at 7:14 when I needed to use the bathroom. But I was warm last night, tossed much too restlessly, and desperately wanted that extra half hour of sleep. So I got up when James did at 7:45, dressing, eating breakfast, and cleaning my glasses all in a combination of movements. I had a book ready and took an orange cup with me and a small square of gingerbread and was off in the drizzle.

Unfortunately my alternate route was no faster than the straightforward one and I arrived at the Cobb County office to find the parking lot packed full. On my second orbit I was seriously considering coming back another day, and then a space opened. It was providential: another day the sun might have been out and it would have been hell waiting outside, even under a building eave, for 130 minutes.

The book I brought with me was Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy, and I spent most of the two hours immersed very happily in 5th century England. I ate the fruit cup when I got there and the gingerbread a little after ten, and it held me until 10:50, when I finally got to the door. The rest of the proceedings only took about twelve minutes, since I had plenty of time to study the ballot! I then took my first break—in the ladies' room!—and then was finally off to Town Center. (I didn't have anything to drink this morning except for the bit of water I took my Prilosec with, and just little sips out of my water bottle carried at my hip, so that definitely helped!)

I hit JoAnn twice, went to Linens'n'Things (nothing worth buying since most of their liquidation is only 10 percent off and they aren't taking the coupons anymore; I hate the idea of Linens going out of business—Bed, Bath and Beyond has similiar stuff, but I like the different products in both places), found a cute "cook Santa" figurine for James after a brief foray into HomeGoods, then drove out to Merchants Walk so I could go to Trader Joe's (and to Michael's, of course).

I also stopped at one of the few Hancock Fabrics left in the area. I was looking for a pretty iron-on design for a shirt, but everything was either babyish or not my taste. However, I did finally find some fusible interfacing, which is used on the back side of cross-stitch projects. For some wild reason known only to craft stores, you can buy cross-stitch patterns and kits and threads and fabric there, but the fusible interfacing, which you use to finish the project, you have to find in a fabric store (and there are precious few of them around here). Goofy.

Stopped at the Heritage Pointe Michael's on the way home and finally had a chance to eat lunch...at 3 p.m. Mmmn! More Trader Joe's chicken salad.

With everything finally put up, I finally took an opportunity to relax. I was supposed to be reading my new cross-stitch magazine, but I was pretty much glued to the recent Discovery Channel special Black Blizzard, about the Dust Bowl. Tim Egan, who wrote The Worst Hard Time, which I recently finished, was featured in the documentary and took part in re-enactments of dust storms (using movie fans and similar fine soil) and static electrical charges spawned by the friction of the dust. Several people who were children during the era also talked about their memories, and one man wept over the "dust pneumonia" death of his little sister.

What is really awesome and terrifying is that dirt from Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas and Texas actually blew 2000 miles across country at least twice, to black out Chicago, then Washington DC, New York, and Boston. Ships out in the Atlantic even had a quarter-inch layer of dust on them from these storms.

Anyway, through all my waiting and then "travels" this morning and afternoon, it rained steadily. I had my umbrella when I arrived at the polling place, but abandoned it soon after; I hate carrying an umbrella...I'd rather be wet. This was no trouble most of the day, as the rain was fairly warm.

Something changed, though, while I was in Trader Joe's—when I came out, the rain was cold and the wind was up a bit. So when I got home, I threw open all the windows wide. Oh, yeah, and I put a sweatshirt on! Woohoo! (It's still a bit warm for it inside, though, but I won't remedy that by turning up the ceiling fan; I don't want Schuyler to get sick. The poor dear is moulting and looks a mess with all those pinfeathers.)

Labels: events, pets, shopping, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 6:19:00 PM

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