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Kay's Daily Journal
July 2008

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2008 Old Farmer's Almanac Predictions for July 2008 in the Mid-Atlantic Region

Temp. 77° (1° above avg.).
Precip. 5" (1: above avg.).
1-6: Showers, then sunny, cool.
7-13: Showers, then sunny, hot.
14-17: T-storms, then sunny, comfortable.
18-25: Scattered t-storms, hot.
26-31: T-storms, warm.

Historic Records For This Month

Historic Record High Temp. 100° Date - July 6, 1999
Historic Record Low Temp. 33° Date - July 1, 1996
Historic Record Rainfall. 0.0" Date - Coming Soon

Important July Dates

Holidays Etc:	Anniversaries:	Birthdays:	Miscellaneous:
July 4 - Independence Day		July 3 - Stephanie	Birthstone - Ruby
		July 21 - Dorothy	Flowers - Larkspur, WaterLily
			Color - Red
			Disability Awareness Month
			Family Reunion Month
			Group B Strep International Awareness Month
			Hemochromatosis Screening Awareness Month
			Herbal/Prescription Awareness Month
			Lakes Awareness Month
			National Baked Bean Month
			National Cell Phone Courtesy Month
			National Culinary Arts Month
			National Grilling Month
			National Hot Dog Month
			National Ice Cream Month
			National Make a Difference to Children Month
			National Picnic Month
			National Recreation & Parks Month
			Psychiatric Disability Awareness Month
			Purposeful Parenting Month
			Solar Awareness Month

July 31, 2008 - Thursday

Temperatures: Hi - 87° Lo - 74° Rainfall Amounts:0.0"(inches)

Yum, Yum!!!! The corn, limas, squash, tomatoes and peaches are DELICIOUS!!!! Nice to have good home-grown vegetables and fruit!!!! I fried up my "hash" of squash, potatoes and onions, and we had the corn on the cob and limas also. Sliced tomatoes and then peaches for dessert! It doesn't get much better than that!!!! Thanks to Dad, Lex & Eunice and Carman!!!

Once again I can't believe it's the end of the month! I just don't understand where the days are going. I still have things I need to accomplish, things I want to accomplish and all that. I just need to get into the right groove or something. Am I moving slower or are the days just going faster?

So, just to see that I actually did accomplish a few little things this month (look at the positive side, please!), here's my Monthly List of Accomplishments for the month of July 2008.

Accomplishments for July 2008:

Bible Read (NIV-New International Version):
     Jeremiah
     Lamentations
     Ezekiel
     Daniel

Home Studies:
     Online SS Lessons: 2008 - 3rd Quarter:
          07/04 - 1. For Such a Time As This: The Apostle Paul
          07/11 - 2. All Things to All Men: Paul Preaches to the World
          07/18 - 3. John the Baptist: Preparing the Way for Jesus
          07/25 - 4. The Son of God Among Us

Note: Online SS Lessons are available at: Current SS Lessons

Daily & Continual Readings:
     Chancellor Church Daily Devotional - July 1 - July 31

Books Read - Non-fiction:
     Last Day Events, Chapters 1 - 5 - E. G. White

Books Read - Fiction:
     High Noon - Nora Roberts
     Boss Man - Diana Palmer
     White Lies - Jayne Ann Krentz
     Someday Soon - Debbie Macomber

TV Specials:
     Macy's 4th of July Fireworks, New York
     The States (historic series) - History Channel
     Twister Sisters (5 episodes of real storm chasing)
     Countdown to Armageddon (History Channel special)
     Decoding the Past: Doomsday 2012: The End of Days (History Channel)
     Modern Marvels: Doomsday Tech (History Channel)
     Biblical Disasters (History Channel)

TV Movies:
     Patriot - (in honor of Independence Day)
     ID4 - (just for fun for Independence Day)
     The Eye
     A Gunfighter's Pledge
     Hang 'Em High
     A Simple Twist of Fate
     Deep Impact
     Volcano
     The Great Los Angeles Earthquake
     Penelope
     National Treasures: Book of Secrets
     Vantage Point

Other:
     Sopranos, Season 4
     Bluegrass Homecoming, Part 2

Bright Ideas:
     Always!

Contests Entries:
     Total Contest Entries for the Month: 652

Skywarn/NWS/KG:
     Reports: 07-04-08, thunderstorms, 0.8" rain
     Reports: 07-05-08, thunderstorms, 0.2" rain
     Reports: 07-06-08, rain showers, 0.2" rain
     Reports: 07-07-08, rain showers, 0.3" rain
     Reports: 07-08-08, rain showers, 0.1" rain
     Reports: 07-09-08, rain showers, trace rain
     Reports: 07-14-08, rain showers, 0.1" rain
     Reports: 07-22-08, rain showers, trace rain
     Reports: 07-27-08, thunderstorms, 0.3" rain

     Monthly High Temp: 100° July 18, 19 & 20, 2008
     Monthly Low Temp: 62° (night-times)-July 2, 3 & 25
    Monthly Total Rainfall: 2.0"

Computer Projects:
     Miscellaneous:
          Cleaned out several Genealogy mail folders to email bulk
          Updated Daily schedule printouts & project lists
          Researched earthquake of Amos 1:1 for Bible Study

Webpage Updates - kayurie.com
     Daily Journals (dailies)
     News Archives (end of month standard)
     Index (end of month standard)

Webpage Miscellaneous Work:
     Reconstructing Webpages & accomplishments
     Found error in JavaScript for emails on ALL pages; working on repairs.
     Organized the monthly stuff for the daily journals.

Household Projects:
     Room by Rooms: Bedroom
     Routine housework: Of course

Inventories:
     Art Books

Holiday Projects - 4th of July:
          Homemade Ice Cream

Places Visited & Things Done:
     Family

Note:
If you are interested in reading or listening or watching any of the listed items above, please check with your local library. Most of these books, audiobooks, CD's, cassettes or DVD's can be found on their shelves. The household, craft and hobby projects are mostly my own and many can be found on these webpages under the same category. If not my original ideas, then credit is given, if known, where due. For instructions, corrections, criticisms, additions or comments, please email me at the address listed at the bottom of this webpage. Hope you have enjoyed my entries.

July 30, 2008 - Wednesday

Temperatures: Hi - 99° Lo - 71° Rainfall Amounts:0.0"(inches)

Today we went to visit our parents. It was a long day but we sure enjoyed driving over and visiting with everyone. Well, we didn't get to see Dorothy or Kevin & his gang, or Eunice. But we saw some of you! And we sure thank you for the corn, squash, limas, tomatoes and peaches!!!!! I'm going to fix them tomorrow night for supper! We're too tired tonight, just heated up Tuesday nights leftovers and going to bed!!!!

July 29, 2008 - Tuesday

Temperatures: Hi - 95° Lo - 69° Rainfall Amounts:0.0"(inches)

I'm still reorganizing my house. I think I have it all figured out and then I realize that before I can complete job A, I need to do job B. And before I can do job B, I need to work on job C. But to complete job C, job A needs to be done first. Do I seem disorganized to you????

I was also trying to set up my easel and art stuff upstairs, but decided it just isn't practical to do oils on carpeting. So I'm re-thinking it all and going to go back to the kitchen for that mess. But I need to downsize my kitchen stuff first. I am cleaning out my cabinets and tossing stuff that I never use. Or giving it away. I may even sell some of it on eBay. I'm thinking of setting up a "store" on eBay to get rid of stuff that I don't use, but just can't bear to throw away. Sounds reasonable, right?

Anyway, when I do, I'll post it here so you can see what I'm selling. I'm even thinking of making stuff to sell too, but, wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. First I have to make space by getting rid of some things before I could possibly have a place to make more stuff. Hm-m-m-m, another dilemna.....

I feel so scattered these days........

July 28, 2008 - Monday

Temperatures: Hi - 86° Lo - 65° Rainfall Amounts:0.0"(inches)

Housework, laundry, ironing. Typical Monday mornings. It's still hot, hazy and humid for the most part, though it might be worse next week. I tried an "experiment" for supper. I fried a couple chicken breasts and put them over rice with broccoli for supper. It was actually pretty good. Something different for us anyway.

July 27, 2008 - Sunday

Temperatures: Hi - 98° Lo - 71° Rainfall Amounts:0.3"(inches)Thunderstorms

Had one errand to run locally so did that. Otherwise, just worked on a couple housework projects before lunch and relaxed for most of the afternoon. Jim worked on the creek a little, it's trying to clog up again. Unfortunately, it's just going to have to be dug out, which requires him to go into the creek near the culvert. So I'll need to be there when he does it. Nothing dangerous, just good to have someone nearby when working on stuff like that.

We watched a couple movies during the afternoon/evening hours and did some computer time. Not much else going on right now.

July 26, 2008 - Sabbath

Temperatures: Hi - 93° Lo - 67° Rainfall Amounts:0.0"(inches)

Another routine day, took it easy though. Honestly, I can't remember doing anything memorable today. We did watch the Bluegrass Homecoming (part 2) Gaither DVD this afternoon. I surfed abit online and Jim actually fell asleep on the sofa for a couple hours. Truth be known, I fell asleep at the computer....

One lone small intense little thunderstorm headed towards Fredericksburg, contains a little hail etc. Don't know if it will hold together all the way to our county or not. If it does, it will be after midnight so it won't count in todays weather log anyway.

July 25, 2008 - Friday

Temperatures: Hi - 96° Lo - 62° Rainfall Amounts:0.0"(inches)

No storms today but we lost power for about 1 ½ hours around noon. Some overhead lines apparently were down somewhere nearby. Thankfully we got it back and I went to do a little grocery shopping. Hot, though the humidity has still been abit lower than it was, but hot, none-the-less! Glad to be back home in my AC!!!

July 24, 2008 - Thursday

Temperatures: Hi - 88° Lo - 67° Rainfall Amounts:0.0"(inches)

Housework. Bagged up garbage and stuff I don't need to go to the dump. Hopefully, I'll do even more before the week is out. Saw a spider that got away and I wasn't too happy about that. I know he'll show his ugly face again when I least expect it and probably in something of mine that is laying around..... He should know that if he does show up again, his life is in danger.

I'm almost through Ezekiel. I think it has been easier in the NIV version of the Bible. I'm also reading "Last Day Events" which is a compilation of E.G. White's writings about the last days of this world. Interesting.

The other day I had finished getting all the disaster stuff downloaded. Well, today I checked out the "rogue waves". I saw a special on those, on one of the channels, I forget which one now. But it was very interesting, so I thought I would follow-up with some research. Cool, huh.

July 23, 2008 - Wednesday

Temperatures: Hi - 91° Lo - 71° Rainfall Amounts:0.0"(inches)

Wasn't feeling very good last night during the night, probably caught the "bug" that Jim has. However, I slept in this morning and I feel a lot better this afternoon. But because of that I only ran one load of laundry today and did only a little of my normal routine. Not going to push it, you know?

I just got an alert that we are under severe thunderstorm watch until 11 pm tonight. Also, our satellite stuff, where our "link" is, well, Laredo, TX, is getting pounded by Hurricane Dolly. So we'll probably lose internet for the next few hours. Hey, it happens.... They can't help that, so no biggy. They'll have the East Coast back online as soon as they can, believe me.

Hot and humid here today, but more clouds than sun. So I don't know how severe the storms will be. Normally you need the sun to heat things up good to get the "rip-snortin'" type storms. However, last night they said that our atmosphere is totally saturated from the ground to way high up, which means that IF we get any storms, they will have significant downpours, if nothing else. So we shall see. We haven't been able to get our lane fixed yet, so maybe that will turn out to be a blessing. But I can barely get in and out now as it is, so if we get downpours, well, I'll be stayin' home for awhile. Hey, I didn't have anywhere to go anyway so no big deal.... Actually, if I had been feeling better (and if Jim had been well) we were going to visit the parents today. Actually, he was going to visit his and I had a funeral that I wanted to attend. Not that anyone likes to go to funerals. But a family member passed away last Friday and I thought alot of her. So I had wanted to attend with Dad. But it wasn't meant to be....

July 22, 2008 - Tuesday

Temperatures: Hi - 97° Lo - 71° Rainfall Amounts: less than 0.1"(inches) Trace

Ran into Fredericksburg early this morning. Had a couple things I needed at WallyWorld. When I came out of the store, the sky was all black to the northwest. As I drove home, it seemed to follow me and by the time I picked up the mail, there was thunder booming around. But we only had a little thunder and very little rain, barely enough to lay the dust. I have no way currently to measure less than 0.1" of rain, so I always label it as that, but I've noted above that it was "less than..." and "trace" so you get the idea. Wasn't much of a storm. Looks like north of us got abit more as there was a severe thunderstorm warning for our area. As usual the storm split around us and both north and south of us got more.

Finished getting the disasters data, at least to current date. Some things are continually being added which makes it virtually impossible to keep up with things like wars and riots and acts of terrorism. But for the most part I have most of the data downloaded.

July 21, 2008 - Monday

Temperatures: Hi - 98° Lo - 73° Rainfall Amounts: 0.0"(inches)

Happy Birthday Dorothy !!!!

Another hot, sunny day. Pretty oppressive out there, but still not as humid as it could be. I've seen worse, in other words.

Been working on some general housework today, picking up, cleaning and laundry and such. Still have a bookcase to move and just didn't have it in me today to do it. Maybe later. My sugar's low right now. I been thinking that I may not even need my morning dose anymore. I seem to be running in the mid 90's before I even take the meds. Then when I take the meds, it makes my sugar drop even lower which gives me the shakes and an overall not great feeling. I may try skipping it a few days and see if I do a little better.

That's not news to worry about, by the way. That's GOOD news!!! Means the diabetes is really under control and even easing up abit.

We're supposed to get storms later this week. Cristobal will miss us completely and I'm definitely happy about that! Dolly is in the Gulf today and is expected to intensify the next couple days, perhaps becoming a strong category 1 hurricane before making landfall in the southern tip of Texas and into the northern area of Mexico. I don't envy those people. They will have to watch out for flash flooding, as well as the gusty winds and stuff.

July 20, 2008 - Sunday

Temperatures: Hi - 100° Lo - 73° Rainfall Amounts: 0.0"(inches)

Well, TS Dolly is in the Carribean heading northwest. Looks to clip Cuba and then possible go into the Gulf, at least if she holds this current course of direction. Could be an issue down the road. We'll keep a watch on her.

The last couple days have been HOT. Yep, the century degree mark is becoming quite familiar this summer. Today we have moderate humidity, but it still isn't the real hazy type summer days yet. Hot? Yes. Humid? Yes. Hazy? Just a smidge. But I wouldn't want to be outside working in it, regardless.

In checking out some of the Hurricane data, I realized that I have fallen quite behind on my Hurricane pages. So I will work on those updates during the next few weeks. I'm also setting up a daily temperatures page for our location and will also add some breaking records type data, not only for my house, my geographic area, nearest large cities, but hopefully, eventually for some other major cities around the country.

I love collecting statistics about things. You know, lists of facts or numbers or information about things. Things like Hurricanes, tornadoes and disasters. I spent an hour or so looking up some statistics on disasters today. For example, did you know that 3912 kamikaze pilots went to their death from 1944-1945? I would've figured a few hundred maybe. But 3912. That's alot of pilots dying.

July 19, 2008 - Sabbath

Temperatures: Hi - 100° Lo - 70° Rainfall Amounts: 0.0"(inches)

Another hot day. Humidity is moderate but will increase as the day moves on. The "depression" off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia is now Tropical Storm Cristobal. Probably will provide some gusty winds and rain along the coasts of South Carolina then North Carolina, but the skimming of the coast land interaction should prevent any further development. Time will tell. They don't always do what is predicted.

We're also keeping our eyes on the other "depression" in the Carribean now that is expected to have some development as it moves towards the Gulf. And another small area of storms south of Bermuda, but it isn't expected to develop at this time. So the season is here and looks like some action may be in the making. Time will tell. We shall see.

July 18, 2008 - Friday

Temperatures: Hi - 100° Lo - 68° Rainfall Amounts: 0.0"(inches)

I've tried not to get into politics here in the daily journal section. I actually have a page or so dedicated to current events which I haven't updated in quite some time. But I just have to say, I didn't think Obama was so bad, though I don't agree with him on many issues. But lately, his inexperience in foreign matters is appalling. He just stands there and spouts off what he is going to do, and I don't think he has a clue about the issue to start with. The old "can't, can't we just all get along...." scenario is NOT going to work with some of the Middle East. They hate us. Do you GET that Mr. Hussein Obama? And his wife, even if I thought he was ok, his wife would cause me to NOT vote for him. She is UNBELIEVABLE. OK, so I've been coming to the conclusion that, though I respect Senator McCain, I don't know that he would make a good president. But I will probably vote for McCain, just to vote AGAINST Obama. Democrats would've been smarter to keep Senator Hillary Clinton as their candidate.

There, I've said it and for now I'll let it go. And another thing....nah, just kidding. For now...

Nope, sorry, I have to say a bit more. Barry Obama, yes, it's rumored that Barry is his real name, why do they call him a black candidate? I really want to know. He is half white, and really more than half since he was raised by a white mother and white grandparents. I guess it's true that he still attended the Muslim schools, but, unbelievably the liberally-baised media calls him black. Why can't they just call him the democratic candidate without having to constantly bring up the color of skin? Seems to me that the liberals have a harder time dealing with race issues than the rest of us here in America.

And don't get me started on the regular TV news channels. People get upset because we have a middle of the road channel, Fox, which is NOT conservative, but occasionally have some mild conservatives on as guests. But ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and so on are so absolutely biased to the left that it amazes me. Can't they see themselves? Are they LISTENING to what they say? I think they perpetuate the race issue so that they will have some sensational news. But they just don't get it. The rest of us, out here in the good ole US of A, for the most part, don't look at skin color at all. It's what the person is like on the inside. Isn't that the way God wants us to look at people? Oh, I forgot. The Liberals don't believe in God.

OK, I'm done.....................................................................for now.

July 17, 2008 - Thursday

Temperatures: Hi - 99° Lo - 64° Rainfall Amounts: 0.0"(inches)

Temperatures are increasing and so is the humidity. I'm looking forward to winter. Did I tell you I hate hot weather????

Jim has been in AZ this week and is on his way home today. It was 109° out there, so I know he'll be happy to get home to our cool 99°. They even had humidity out there, since it is the monsoon season and they have rain and storms everyday. There was even flooding in Phoenix, though he only passed through there a couple times.

Not much other news that I can post in this journal and any other news you will know if you are one who needs to know...

I worked on going through some stuff this week as I explained earlier in my daily journals. I got a bookcase moved and the VHS tapes sorted and moved, though they still need to be alphabetized... I also have been going through more of my hobby stuff and deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. Mostly it's keep. At least for the hobby stuff. But I'm going to play the game that if I haven't got a place for it, then it's going to go. So I'm sorting and re-sorting stuff according to what I consider keepers. That's hard to do and it takes alot of time. Some days I'm not good at getting rid of stuff and yet other days, I can fill several bags for the dump (which is what I did the other day).

Lately, I'm in the "getting rid of mood" And that's a good thing! Problem is, I'll have a hard time ever downsizing all my hobbies. I don't work on them every day. Sometimes I'll go months or even years not working on a particular hobby. But the interest is always there and something will spur it to the forefront and I'll dig out that hobby to spend concentrated time on it. That's the way I work with crocheting, quilting, cross-stitch, genealogy, scrapbooking and art. Music, well, that one is almost always active and I guess I could even include genealogy, since I stay on active email lists about many of the surnames I research. But sometimes I get more active in my research than at other times. But just because I haven't worked on a hobby, even if it has been years, like cake decorating or candymaking, the interest is still there... Jack of all trades, master of none...

July 16, 2008 - Wednesday

Temperatures: Hi - 93° Lo - 65° Rainfall Amounts: 0.0"(inches)

Same exact temps as yesterday. Just hot and sunny. Humidity is high but not as bad as it could be! I'm glad to be inside with the AC, that's for sure.

Another housework day, a little laundry, finished moving VHS tapes around for now. Worked on another bookcase, sorting books out into three piles: 1)Keepers 2)Sellers & 3)Tosses. Self-explanatory. Problem is that I have quite a few that I'd like to sell on eBay, even though I won't get much for them. So I'm filling a storage tub full of those. I also loaded a couple large bags of trade-ins for the next time I get into town. So I'm getting there. Still gots tons to go!

No storms in our forecast until Friday night or Saturday, but that's OK, we need a reprieve! Lane is still mostly unpassable, at least for normal vehicles. I can get up and down it, thanks to Jim's work last week. But others in regular vehicles would have trouble. Four-wheel drive would be OK. The man who was going to fix it, since early June has not showed up. We've talked to him 3 times and he always says he'll be over in a couple days, but he hasn't made it over yet. So I'm losing hope that he will do it. Might have to look around for someone else, maybe.

I've been watching the activities in the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean. There is potential there for some development but time will tell. One will most likely cross Central America and not be a threat to us. There could possibly be heavy rains and gusty winds, however, in parts of Nicaragua and Honduras. Another is very unorganized and over the Florida peninsula. If it went into the Gulf or even towards the Atlantic and got into the warmer Gulf Stream, there would be possible development but so far it's just a bunch of disorganized thunderstorms over Florida. Then there is another batch of diminishing storms approaching the Windward Islands that has to be monitored. They actually sent the planes in today to have a look-see, but, and I quote, "the system lacks a single well defined circulation center." They also mentioned that the storms have decreased somewhat today, but it still bears watching as it still could develop into a low pressure system overnight. I'll keep you informed, but check it out yourself by going to the NOAA-NWS Website. And don't forget to click your "back" button to return here to my informative journal.

July 15, 2008 - Tuesday

Temperatures: Hi - 93° Lo - 65° Rainfall Amounts: 0.0"(inches)

Worked upstairs in the boys bedrooms mostly this morning. I have books, more books to get rid of, a couple bags ready for trade-in as well as a good stack or two to sell. I'm just trying to decide if it's better to sell them on eBay or somewhere else? Lots of miscellaneous type hardbacks, we've read them and we're short of space so they have to go. Anyone out there have any suggestions????

More housework, quiet day. Moved some old VHS tapes around, probably should sell them or toss them or give some away. Anybody need some old VHS movies????

I still need to organize the tapes on the shelves. I guess I'm a little bit obsessive-compulsive. I have to have them in alphabetical order. Yep, no kidding. I don't know why. You tell me. I mean, I know why I keep all my clothes hangers facing the same direction. My mom said I have to do it that way, years ago. See, she lost her home to fire three times growing up and lost everything. The only thing of value was her clothes and she taught me to keep them all hanging the same direction so it would be easy to grab them in an emergency.

My problem is, in an emergency, I would leave the clothes behind and grab other stuff. I feel so sorry for the folks out in California with the forest fires. They come so fast, it's hard for us in the East to understand about fire like that. But I'm a history buff and I've read stuff about fires in the plains. They say you cannot outrun a prairie fire. That's hard to imagine, but supposedly true. Kinda like a tsunami or the surge from a hurricane. The water just comes in so fast, well, the surge and flooding kill more people than the hurricane itself.

July 14, 2008 - Monday

Temperatures: Hi - 82° Lo - 67° Rainfall Amounts: 0.1"(inches)

Made some progress around the house and ran some laundry. What can I say? I repeat myself every Monday. It's a typical Monday, housework, laundry, hot and sunny outside.....

The rain was from early morning, started after midnight and really calling it a tenth of an inch is being generous.

I'm reading Ezekiel right now. I find it very hard to understand. I understand that there are many visions but I'm a visual person and I picture things as I read them. I'm having a hard time picturing the things Ezekiel saw in his visions. I know that most of his visions applied to the destruction of Jerusalem and the promise of restoration after a time. And I know that there are some that refer to things that haven't happened yet.

Busy day, tired. Calling it a night.

July 13, 2008 - Sunday

Temperatures: Hi - 96° Lo - 69° Rainfall Amounts: 0.0"(inches)

We had a good line of storms, honestly, there was no way they could miss us. But they did. The storm line split, as it often does, and ran up the west side of 301. No kidding. That's how close it came. Actually there's more coming during the night but not as severe looking, and I think we will end up getting some anyway during the night, perhaps just rain. Which we really don't need at this point....

Today was an uneventful day. Just didn't get much accomplished. However, I have big plans for tomorrow. I'm gonna tackle a room-a-day hopefully this week. Just still trying to sort through stuff and get rid of some of it. Probably will fill another couple bags full of books again for another time when I go to town. I'll probably never use all the credit, but that's just the way it goes. When we left Westminster, I turned in 90% of all my books and had about $1500 in credit at the local used book store. Unfortunately, none of them give cash for the books and over the years, I only used a little bit of the credit and no longer get to visit there anymore. So, that's the way it goes. I rarely read them anymore, only certain writers, whereas years ago I read almost all of them. Now, I don't know, I just moved on to other hobbies more. I'm not saying that I didn't have other hobbies when we lived there, quite the opposite. I did candymaking, cake decorating, quilting, cross-stitch, music, genealogy, gardening, church crafts, collections and so on. It's just that now, I have been spending more time reading books about the hobbies and how to do specific things. I've also added art, you know, oil painting, acrylics, watercolor, drawing and the latest thing I want to try, besides the watercolors are chalk.

Years ago, when we visited some good friends in Texas, I think I was about 6 years old at the time, perhaps 7 maybe. There was this man, an artist, that came for Sabbath dinner to the home of the family we were visiting. While we were there, he drew, in chalk, a beautiful landscape picture. It was really gorgeous. And though I was quite young, I never forgot that he did that right before my eyes. I thought it was AWESOME!

I'd looked for art chalks for a couple years but found them in Wal-Mart one day. So I have them, now I just have to get my courage up to try them.....

July 12, 2008 - Sabbath

Temperatures: Hi - 95° Lo - 67° Rainfall Amounts: 0.0"(inches)

Bright and sunny, quiet day. I fixed "bean dish" for lunch which we haven't had for awhile since tomatoes have been suspect. But they say the tomatoes that are sold on the vine are ok, so that's what we had. We will see, so far no stomach problems! Bean dish, for those of you who wonder what I'm talking about, is also known as "haystacks" in many parts of the country. Some call it "taco salad" but I think of taco salad as essentially the same ingredients only served inside a cooked, fried, deep fried tortilla shell, shaped like a bowl. Haystacks or bean dish is minus the "taco" bowl, but with crushed taco or dorito type chips included as one of the layers of food. Lettuce, tomatoes, onions, sour cream, grated cheese and even salsa make up the rest of the delicious meal.

I finished Jeremiah last night and start Lamentations tonight.

July 11, 2008 - Friday

Temperatures: Hi - 94° Lo - 64° Rainfall Amounts: 0.0"(inches)

I did a little shopping today. Actually a lot of shopping. I did my regular shopping whic was stuff for the next couple weeks or so. I also stopped at a Wal_Mart for some prescriptions and picked up some other stuff while waiting. Always a bad thing, waiting for prescriptions.....

Also ran some laundry in the morning before I went to town. I was worried about the lane after I made it out but when Jim came home, he worked on a couple of the worse spots and made it easier for me to get back up the hill without any trouble. I really appreciated it!

I got rid of a bunch of my old romance novels by turning them into a couple of used book stores and now I have a little credit for other books. I actually found a couple of "how-to" art books that I've been looking for, so got them for 25% off the publishers price, which means a good deal!

Other than this above, it was just a hot summer day, not quite as humid as it has been, but still uncomfortable. Glad I can stay put now for a week or two and just enjoy the AC!!!

July 10, 2008 - Thursday

Temperatures: Hi - 86° Lo - 70° Rainfall Amounts: 0.0"(inches)

I need to design a form of some sort for the record temps etc. Then I need to design a webpage to include the information for our location. Yep, just what I needed, another big BIG project to take up some more time. But I love it!!! So I'll do it, eventually. It's on my "to-do" list for sure.

I have 3 programs I like to watch during the week. One is "Joy of Painting" with the late Bob Ross. Another is the Scrapbooking show on BYU, followed by the Ancestors show on the same channel. Gets me excited to be working on these things again. I'm hoping to do some more oil paintings in September as time allows. I'm also hoping to do some serious research on the family history again and a little more organizing. And there's always scrapbooks to be worked on. Did I mention that I want to work on my next CD too? Good to be busy, even if it is hobbies. Now if I could just get my house cleaned up????

This week I also spent some time getting my August Journal page ready instead of waiting for the last minute. I've started including the Record High Temperature, the Record Low Temperature, and Record Rainfall amounts and dates of occurence above in the Weather Almanac section each month. These records are currently from Stafford, VA, since that is the closest location to our house of official records from 1996 - 2007. I will update these with more records once I check out the local guys stats which started in 2008 and is about 4 miles away from our house. Starting with June 2008 I will use my own records, taken at my house, for any record breaking days. Once I have all this data compiled, my next project will be to locate the next closest location that was keeping records prior to 1996 and incorporate those records into my data for previous years. It's complicated, but I will get there eventually. Like I said. Another BIG project to undertake.

The other question is should I put the records in for each day or just the high and low for the whole month? The answer is, I don't know yet. I have just the monthlys included here in July, already added to the upcoming August Journal page and I also went back and added June's records. I may go back to January, but not today. I have the data, just don't have time right now to add them into the archives....

You may ask me why I'm creating all this work to do? Why go to all this trouble? Why am I doing it? I don't know why. I think I enjoy knowing this stuff for one thing and then, dear public, so I can share this new-found knowledge with you. You may not care because, unless you live near my house, it doesn't apply to you and that's OK. I'm still going to do it anyway.

My interests, my web-pages, my time, my dime........

July 9, 2008 - Wednesday

Temperatures: Hi - 81° Lo - 70° Rainfall Amounts: trace

I managed to get the high and low temperature records for this area. Actually they are only from 1996 and located in Stafford but that appears to be the closest records to us until 2008 which I hope to get tomorrow. Starting this past June of 2008, I'm keeping my own right here at my house!! Pretty cool, huh?

I'm getting excited about some of my hobbies again. I'm spending all my time at home these days, what with gas prices etc, besides the lane being all torn up. So I'm trying to get some organizing done around the house, getting rid of some things, tossing other things, cleaning and just overall downsizing. Yeah, yeah, I know I've been saying this for years now, but I am making some progress.

Anyway, I'm trying to make space for the hobbies I want to concentrate on versus trying to take on more hobbies that I just don't the energy for anymore. So plastic canvas, latchhook rugs, braiding, macrame, to name a few are going to go. That's one tub of stuff..... I'm keeping genealogy, art, music, scrapbooking, quilting, cross-stitch, sewing and a few others. There's only so much time in a day and I move alot slower than I used to....

July 8, 2008 - Tuesday

Temperatures: Hi - 92° Lo - 65° Rainfall Amounts: 0.1"(inches)

Again the 0.1" is from just after midnight so it counts in today's rainfall totals. Storms are predicted for us later this afternoon so that amount will surely increase. In fact, storms are predicted every day this week through Thursday.

Looks like Hurricane Bertha (which jumped from a Category 1 to a Category 3) is now making the turn North. She has diminished some overnight but that often happens anyway. If she continues North, she will most likely encounter cooler ocean waters and therefore continue to weaken. If she would happen to keep on a more westward course, she would likely intensify due to the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream along the East Coast of the States. Hopefully, she will continue northward and not make a loop-de-loop and head south then west again. It occasionally happens, but computer models are not predicting this, so we will keep our fingers crossed!

If you would like to track Hurricane Bertha, go the the NOAA-NWS Website. You can see various things about her, see 3 & 5 day location predictions and any other hurricanes that may develop this summer, as well. Be sure to hit your "Back" button to return to my pages!!!!

I got a couple of my new songs ripped today and changed the key on one of them. Still have a couple more to do that require a little more work for changes, but at least I'm making progress.

July 7, 2008 - Monday

Temperatures: Hi - 82° Lo - 67° Rainfall Amounts: 0.3"(inches)

Watching Hurricane Bertha, yes, she's at 90 mph sustained winds, so she's a Category 1. Category 2 begins at 96 mph and they are expecting her to soon become a Category 2. However, they do believe she will lose some intensity before hitting Bermuda, probably will be a Category 1 again. The East Coast should still keep an eye on her regardless as Hurricanes are sometimes fickle and change course. All indications are that we're in the clear, but pay attention to your local weather forecasts, just in case. Hurricane Bertha, as with any of these monster storms, doesn't necessarily pay attention to all the computer forecast models.

It started raining again around 9 pm this evening, but didn't last long. Nothing else showing on the radar for tonight, but who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Rained after midnight last night but had stopped by morning. It has been overcast here all day, but I saw on the local news that it was sunny in DC. So that close...

July 6, 2008 - Sunday

Temperatures: Hi - 79° Lo - 68° Rainfall Amounts: 0.3"(inches)

Just a quiet Sunday so far. Started out cloudy and humid because of the rain yesterday. This afternoon it is raining now and then, but not too hard. Well, hard enough a couple times to lose satellite connection for the internet but otherwise, not what I would call heavy rain.

I worked on this weeks contesting, there were only 8 that were worth putting entries into this week. Typically there's around 15 - 20. And of course, they are usually not just for this week, but ending dates may be as late as January of next year on some of them. That means, I would most likely enter once a week, so I make those up in advance, date them and have a place that I keep future monthly mailings. Sometimes they are only a one-time entry. Sometimes it's a prize that I would like to win, with no limits on entries, so those I might enter up to 5 times a week, depending on how close the "contest ends" date is. So entries vary week to week.

I got some new songs in the mail this week that I'm going to work on. Of course they are Southern Gospel, only one that is more contemporary. But I need to change the key on a couple of them and also need to learn them. I only heard a brief clip of a couple of them and a couple others I heard the song once and liked it, so I got it! Anyway, I like them, they touch me, so that is always an indication of a song I should sing. I guess it helps me sing it from my heart better, you know?

I'm really hoping to start recording my next CD this month or next. I'm still working on some of the music, but we shall see. I'm looking forward to it, once again. If you remember, last time I was halfway through recording when Hurricane Isabel came and I had to postpone finishing the CD until November. So here I am, planning to start in the next week or so and guess what's on the horizon? Another hurricane.....

And I can't believe that it has taken me this long to record a 2nd CD! The first one was done 2003. I had intended to do another one in 2004, then 2005 etc. But the best laid plans..... Well, no excuses really except for laziness I suppose. Just seems like it wasn't meant to be until now. So, if it's meant to be, it will happen.

July 5, 2008 - Sabbath

Temperatures: Hi - 80° Lo - 67° Rainfall Amounts: 0.2"(inches)

So it stormed and rained until early morning, actually stopped raining around 8:30 am. Last nights storm yielded 0.8" (8/10th's of an inch) and another 0.2" (2/10th's of an inch) was added since midnight which of course will be added into today's total. It has been a cloudy day for the most part but I see a few storms starting to pop in the southwestern part of the Commonwealth, so we will probably get a little more.

Last night's rain came hard a couple times, along with a little wind, so we had the normal small limbs down throughout the common drive. Our lane also has some newer deeper ruts from the run-off, so it will be difficult for me to drive the lane in my car until it's fixed. Oh well, wasn't planning on going anywhere anyhow, so not a big deal.

WOW. I hadn't checked on our "tropical wave" that came off the coast of Africa. Guess what? It's now Tropical Storm Bertha. Hey, we had a Bertha back in 1996! I remember cause it spun off a small tornado that took down all our neighbors English Walnut trees when we were living over at the rental house near the water! We also had leaves and small branches stuck to the house. Yes, I said "stuck". We had a "bit" of wind when the storm moved over us. It was the first one the boys had ever experienced. The name was re-used since it didn't cause any deaths or too much property damage, I think.

Anyway, I got side-tracked. Our new "Bertha" was originally supposed to veer to the north and totally miss Bermuda. However, once again, Bertha has a mind of her own. Now the 5-day-cone shows her with a bead on the South Carolina-Georgia border. She's currently due East of the Bahamas. So we will now have to keep an eye on her. It's really too early to say whether she will be a danger to the USA, it's unusual to have one come across the Atlantic this early in the season. Typically, if they form, they soon veer to the north somewhere in the central Atlantic Ocean, missing the USA completely. But we'll keep an eye on her and see if she continues on the westward path.

I'm excited about getting some stuff done around the house the next couple weeks. I've had about 4 weeks of not feeling very good and I'm starting to feel better, more so every day. (Well, OK, I had some nausea this morning but it passed after a couple of hours). So I'm hoping to DE-clutter, toss, throw-away, give-away or sell books and some hobby stuff that I just don't work on anymore. Also have canning supplies, pots n' pans and miscellaneous kitchen gadgets to get rid of. Some of it is spoken for, so for those of you who I've promised some stuff to, never fear, I will get it to you eventually. But there's alot more too. I'm in a cleaning mood, somebody shout Hallelujah!!!

Don't worry, there are hobbies I'm not giving up, such as art, scrapbooking, genealogy, music, quilting, sewing etc. I will also probably keep the candy molds and some of the cake pans, even though I rarely bake a cake and can't remember the last time I made candy. Cookie cutters will be kept for the most part also but other stuff, some of the unusual kitchen gadgets that I NEVER use, well, those are going, too.

I know, I know. I know what you're thinking. It's about time, right? Yep. It is.

Anybody need some VHS movies????

July 4, 2008 - Friday

Temperatures: Hi - 91° Lo - 68° Rainfall Amounts: 0.8"(inches)

Happy Independence Day !!!!

Nice thunderstorm early evening, lots of lightning, close lightning. You know, the kind that you hear the "BANG" at the same time as the white flash. Several had to hit within a 100 or 200 yards of the house. Getting familiar with that!

Supposed to be stormy the next five days too, but we shall see. I believe they are saying the front will stall over top of the area, causing the atmosphere to be unstable for the next two days, then the humidity builds back in as the front lifts up to the North and we will then be in store for the standard "pop-corn" style garden-variety summer thunderstorms. Those are usually more hit or miss, not an organized line of storms like with the fronts that roll through. We shall see.

Ran into town this morning early to pick up just a few items. Lot's of sales going on and unlike Black Friday after Thanksgiving, not many shoppers. Most people are having picnics or barbeques or family get togethers of some sort. This year I just didn't feel up to any of that so we did our short shopping excursion, picked up some Chinese lunch and came home to watch a couple Independence Day movies. I really enjoyed doing that too! We watched Patriot with Mel Gibson, about the Revolutionary War and then a lighter movie, ID4 which is also always entertaining! Good day.

July 3, 2008 - Thursday

Temperatures: Hi - 98° Lo - 62° Rainfall Amounts: 0.0"(inches)

Happy Birthday Stephanie !!!!

Housework and laundry. You'd think I'd catch up one of these days, wouldn't ya? Nope, it's always there, piling up just waiting for me to work on it. So I did.

I've been thinking about stuff that I want to accomplish and sometimes the list is overwhelming. I think I let it get me frazzled sometimes if I think too much. I need to remember to take one day at a time, one item at a time, baby steps, especially until I'm feeling better. If I just keep on doing one thing, it will all eventually get done! See? Not so frazzled anymore.... And I'm not just talking about housework, but hobbies that I have neglected the last couple of years too. I have lots of research to do on the genealogy, tons of photos to scan and more to scrapbook, music to record, paintings to paint, drawings to draw, it just tires me out to think about it all! But I also look forward to having some time to work on them too. Not frazzled, maybe lazy....

July 2, 2008 - Wednesday

Temperatures: Hi - 91° Lo - 62° Rainfall Amounts: 0.0"(inches)

Another routine day, trying to catch up around the house now that I'm feeling better each day. Bagged garbage and ran it to the dump, always a pleasant job. But at least it was in the low 80's today, not so sufficating hot and humid for a change. However, the weathermen predict the triple H's are going to return by Friday and throughout the weekend. Well, it is July, after all.

I saw the perfect scanner on a TV program the other day! WOW. Have no idea what it would cost but it's getting added to my "Wanted's List"!! It has a little door thingy that you can put your negatives etc into and it will scan them into your computer. I believe they said it will also do slides, though I don't know if they go through the little door or if there is a separate attachment for them, but none the less, the negative thingy would be SO worth it!!!! I'm going to have to do some research on it. I don't know if it would work with my system either....

July 1, 2008 - Tuesday

Temperatures: Hi - 88° Lo - 63° Rainfall Amounts: 0.0"(inches)

The darker blue sky background is being used to symbolize the storminess of summer. Though we had most of our storms in June this year, who knows what this month will bring? And as always, if you didn't get chance to see the end of last month's journal with all the accomplishments listed, you can find it in the "Archives" listed above.

Less humidity today, though it started out higher than it ended. But we still got up to 88°. I still consider that to be kinda warm. Ya think?

A tropical wave has come off the coast of Africa and the Weather Channel indicated that conditions are favorable for development. So we'll keep an eye on it to see what happens. I'll post any news here in the journal.

Strange thing happened today. I'd been upstairs all morning, working on laundry and ironing and such. I came downstairs to do some things and watched my two BYU programs on Scrapbooking and Ancestors. Then I went into the kitchen and did some dishes, bagged some garbage. I wasn't out there 20 minutes and came back into the living room and there was a puddle of fresh blood on the deck. The cats weren't around, they don't come until evening, somebodies strays that we feed. (Noone owns a cat, they own you...) and the only thing I can figure is that the hawk got a squirrel on the deck. The hawk sits about 30 feet away in a cedar tree certain times during the day watching the doves and miscellaneous songbirds at the feeders. When I was watching TV, the squirrels were on the deck after peanuts that were left over from the raccoon the night before. So I guess that's what happened. I usually try to scare off the hawks by just appearing at the window when they sit in the trees nearby. That's all it takes to make them leave in the summer. But I didn't see him today.....

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