The storm has dwindled. Good. Mom is OK, as are the other folks I was concerned about. Good. I need to go to the store today. I may skip it until tomorrow, because we were up late last night and up early again this morning keeping an eye on the storm. I’m beat. Surely there is something dessert-like I can make with what’s in the house. Lin has gone to work to try to get a few hours done at one site, but I suspect he’ll be home early. It’s not exactly construction weather out there even if it doesn’t rain for the rest of the day. So all is basically well at Casa de Orb.

The neighbors across the street had their property surveyed yesterday. I wonder if they are planning on selling. They have been doing a ton of work on the place the last year. Maybe we’ll get some cool new neighbors … or some more crazy ones. Speaking of crazy, the habit of screaming in driveways seems to be catching. P. and her husband were yelling at each other and slamming front doors this morning. Ugh. Meanwhile, Lin and I are still hugging and kissing in our driveway. Have to set a good example for the neighborhood lunatics, don’t you know.

The kittens have been driving me insane for about 12 hours now. Where do they get the energy?! Lin asked me the other night if I thought we could expect another year of them being total pills. I think so. Even though they are almost 11 months old, they still have a whole lot of kitten in them yet. In fact, as intelligent and feisty as these two are, it may be years before they settle down at all. Maybe I should let them get fat and lazy. They may be driving us both a little crazy, but they are also becoming wonderful and affection cats. Once they get past their teen stage, I think they will be nothing but a pure delight. Let’s hope the cats, ourselves, the house, and our belongings all survive the teen-aged cat rebellion.

I’m going to do one more run-through of the weather sites, and then I am going to have the last of the stew for brunch. If it wakes me up, I’ll go to the store. If it makes me sleepy, I am heading back to bed. I’m betting on bed. I ache all over from the damp, damp weather, and three hours of sleep is just not enough, particularly since I didn’t sleep very well worrying about the storm that was hitting my mom’s house. Yes, I probably worry to much, but better to worry than to think these intense storms we get that cause flash flooding can’t cause a wicked mess of problems with no notice at all. I am certain we will eventually get back into the usual dry and hot summer weather, and then I can stop worrying and start complaining about how freaking hot it is.