still waiting, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

Things were pretty much back to normal at work today. Boss man thanked everyone for getting the paper out under extraordinary circumstances. I only had to remind a couple of callers that no, we couldn't get their ads in because there was this tornado, you see...

Mrs Prissy is still sitting on her eggs. Wikipedia says the incubation period is 34-45 days. She looked really thirsty. You would think her mate would give her a break to eat and drink, but he was otherwise occupied.

DSCN6619, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

Mountain laurel is starting to bloom. I imagine a little plink sound as the tiny umbrellas open up, but then I've always been imaginative. *g*

It's been a quiet weekend, which is a good thing. We had quite enough excitement last week; enough to last for a long time. They said on the news that power has been restored to all areas, so tomorrow we will start getting back to normal. For a lot of folks, that will take quite a bit longer. I can't even imagine what folks in places like Joplin are still dealing with, after seeing what happened here.

Life goes on, with perhaps a little more respect for the power of Nature.

pattern and color, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

I got up this morning and got ready for work, just in case. I fired up the G5 and was just about to post "Just waiting to see if I can go into work today" when I got a text from the boss: come in, we're getting copy together. So I made lunch and hit the road.

I got there around eight, and they were just setting up the generator. I was happy to see Kim, as I had seen scenes from her neighborhood on the news and it wasn't good. Her house was spared, but she dropped her cell phone during the tornado and it was kaput. Hey, if that's the worst thing to happen, you're doing well.

Next came the figuring out which extension cord went where, and who needed a computer. They printed out reports, and we made sure all our ads were accounted for. I exported the classifieds, made corrections, and sent them off to Beth in production.

One of the reporters went around taking pictures for our Facebook page. We all shared storm stories, and marveled that everyone was OK.

Nobody panicked, nobody got upset, nobody complained. We did all that we could do, and were satisfied with that. There will be a paper on Monday. It will be a bit abbreviated, but I'm pretty sure everyone will be amazed we could do it at all. There are lots of businesses in the area that won't be up and running for days, maybe even weeks. The husband of one of our salespeople has an ice cream shop, and he lost all his inventory.

I left around quarter to eleven, having done everything I could. They said we should have power by tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

And then I had the rest of the day, which was a gorgeous one. I took a nice walk down to Rite Aid and Amelia Park, took a short nap, watched some Lost on video (gods I miss that show), made supper. The admin from work called to see how I was doing, which was nice of her. I updated her on everyone who was there, and what I knew from the news (she still has no power, either).

Then I went for another walk, to catch the end-of-the-day light. Gorgeous.

Hopefully things will be mostly back to normal on Monday. For now, I'm not going to worry about it. I'm still counting my blessings.

gaggle, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

I did something silly this morning. I went to work. Turns out, the town where I work still has no power (it went out about quarter to five yesterday). My boss sent out a text, but she didn't have my cell number. Well, she does now!

So I went down to Heritage Park and took pix of the goslings. They looked so cute in the morning sunshine.

My boss eventually called, and there was no sign we'd have power soon, so I went home. I got a text later that said they're trucking in a generator, but it'd be a few hours yet, so I went for a walk down to Stanley Park.

( A nice day )

Another storm cell passed through a while ago. Check out the yellow sky. Right after the storm, it cleared up and we had a nice sunset. It's calm out there now.

I know people deal with this all the time in places like Oklahoma and Kansas, but for Massachusetts, it's pretty bizarre to be contemplating a tornado. Check out the footage of the tornado crossing the Connecticut River. I cross that river every day, but not on that bridge.

Normally, I love thunderstorms. But when there's a tornado warning, and one has already passed through, they're a little unnerving.

I'm just glad to be safe, and all my local friends appear to be as well. That was pretty intense.