If this is how we ring in summer . . .

Yesterday was a doozy of a day.

I went for lunch yesterday, got back in the car after going to the grocery to hear a tornado watch was in effect for our area. I hate the very thought of a tornado, because you can't do anything to avert the danger. Unlike a hurricane, you can't board up the windows, hunker down. You just pray. Not that I've been through one, but I've been close enough to them that they just scare the bejesus out of me.

And we get that watch yesterday. Those are fairly frequent, and I normally don't worry too much, but these were bad storms coming, and I had seen the damage on TV that they did in the midwest. And then the watch changed to a warning.

At about 3 PM we're sitting in the office when the lights flicker. We lose power a lot in this building (I guess nature is kinda pissed about having an office complex stuck in the middle of the woods--I think the deer conspire with the trees). And the sky gets dark. And then it lets loose. I worry about my boyfriend in weather like this. He has a long drive, on windy roads, and he is pretty manly so he doesn't think the worst can happen, meanwhile I get scared for him. Oh, did I mention he lives right next to railroad tracks by the firehall (and that siren goes off all the time)in an area that has been noted to have dangerous weather--I realized the other week, you'd have a hard time there knowing if it was a twister or the 11:40 out of Frederick based on the noise.

Anyway, the storm was horrible. Granted, I had a stunning perspective from 8 stories up. Lots of fun to watch the transformers blow in the distance--our fun fact of the day is that they glow electric blue when they blow, like a 996 blue, pretty, but terrifying. And to realize you couldn't see 25 feet in front of you. I was in our lunchroom texting, and then decided I ought to step back from the windows.

They let us leave at 4, and I got home to realize no power. I live in an older neighborhood, so we lose power any time it rains, but it always comes back. But we sat and waited. I stitched on my RR til it got dark, then went to bed. There isn't much to do in the dark by candlelight. It struck me that women used to cross stitch in the same quality of light as I had, but then again, people died much earlier in those days, so if your eyes were screwed up by the time you were my age, you didn't have that long to live so it was not a big deal.

The lights still weren't on this morning, but they weren't on at work either. We didn't go in til 2. I decided to not waste the time I had, so went to the store and then sat outside on our stoop, dyeing floss. It wasn't a great success. I only made up 4 colors, so there isn't a lot of varigation in what I did, but it's still pretty. And I did get some cool colors. I just think I am way more anal-retentive than most people would be because I want to start the thread-dyeing business. But I mean, I did good, considering I was trying to do art on the front porch. Now I have to steam this bunch to set the colors--it's in a little Saran Wrap jelly roll on my desk.

I am excited because I got my order from Carrie's Creations. It went to my mom's other house, and she brought it in this morning. I ordered because there was a design in the Gift of Stitching that used one skein and, well, you can't order $1 worth of anything. I am so used to the high cost of everyone else's threads that it was a luxury to order 13 skeins and it was only $13. Mom thought the flosses were pretty, too. She thinks it's funny that variegated floss was so popular back in the day and she has a huge box of it out at the house, and now it's back in style again. I can't wait to use Carrie's floss, but need to get the rest of the colors for the design.