Worked tonight. It was very quiet for most of the night, and then in the last hour, we got in some very sick patients, and all hell broke loose...it sometimes happens that way on weekends and holidays, and on holiday weekends like this one...

Pouring rain again...if this doesn't stop soon, we might lose some big trees, because the ground is so saturated with water...that's happened to a couple of our neighbor's trees, the weight of the wood brings the tree crashing down when the soil gets too wet for too long to hold the roots...ah, well, I will be in the desert in less than a month anyway. We shouldn't get near daily pouring rain there, though the last time we went out to the Rockies in the summer, we got a blizzard!

Bill is now a legal driver, and has an official permit. Last night he drove us up to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Tios, in Ypsilanti to celebrate. We also stopped off at the Jeep dealer just to look at the colors, and then stopped off at Target to buy Bill a wallet to carry his permit in, and get him some sunglasses for when he is driving. He very much enjoyed driving us around.

Today we had a quiet day at home. Bill drove down to Milan for a graduation party, Steven and I went out to lunch for a couple of hours, then we went back to the party and let Billy drive home.  Again, he seemed to enjoy driving a great deal.

I think he is quite good for a beginner. I am, as always, very proud of him.

Went out today to test drive some more vehicles. Test drove a Ford Escape. I liked the Jeep better, and the Jeep has a bit more cargo and leg room. Unlike the nice little dealer in Milan, this place was crowded with salespeople. Two were waiting for me in the parking lot, and three more in the showroom. The Jeep dealer handed me the keys and told me to "go have fun" and let me drive the little truck away all by myself. Even told me to go on some back roads so I could see how it handled in deep mud. These people let me test drive, but I had to take along the salesman, who regaled me with tales about how great the truck was. By the time I was done, I drove home and threw up all over the place in my driveway (couldn't quite make it inside the house to get to the bathroom). At least I earned another CD...but man, it was hard. I think I should be able to get a two CD set for that.!!!

I hate the lies. I hate the pressure. This guy at the Ford place was saying that we have to buy our truck by June 1 to get the incentives, and that sales were picking up and Ford would cancel the incentives. But the lot was so stuffed with new vehicles that there was virtually no room for customers to park (the Escapes were parked three deep in a row and he had to go through a bit of a hard time to get out the one I wanted to try, which was in the middle row) -- and they turned away an auto carrier filled with trucks while I was sitting there...

 

Haven't written in a few days. One of my friends lost his baby, and that has had me very down in spirit. To me losing a child is the worst thing that can happen to a human being. My heart goes out to my friend and his wife, and I cannot even begin to imagine the kind of pain they must be currently experiencing.

It actually hasn't rained yet today, after thunderstorms all night long. I stayed up and watched a couple of movies, because it was too noisy to sleep...saw Solaris and Spirited Away.

Got up early, took Billy into Saline for his driver's training class. Steven and I stopped at Tim Horton's for donuts after dropping him off. Yum!

Came home and did housework, then took Steven down to Monroe for a soccer game. The field was completely saturated with water. There were huge puddles, when the ball would land in one it would stop dead...the kids were soaked when the game was over...

Had our first barbecue of the spring tonight. Chicken, brats, a bunch of side dishes...

32 days until we leave for New Mexico...

Interesting day. Got up early and went into Milan. Test drove a Jeep Liberty ( earned one cd)...liked it, though Dan keeps saying he thinks they are too small. I thought it was great to be able to get in and out of parking spots in my test drive without having to worry about a huge rear end sticking out like in my car...

The Dodge/Jeep/Chrysler dealer in Milan is actually a nice place. No salespeople on staff. It is a third generation business, currently owned by the grandson of the founder, with his elderly father helping out. I didn't know that businesses like that still existed in Southeastern Michigan.

Next I headed into Ann Arbor to go to the doctor's office. I got there to find out that the lab closes for nearly two hours in the middle of the day every day so the employees can eat lunch. Of course, no one mentioned that to me on the phone yesterday ("Sure you can come in tomorrow! You don't need an appointment! Just come in anytime and go back to the lab!")...so I went out for lunch at a nearby Olive Garden, where I greatly enjoyed soup, salad, and breadsticks. Dan met me there to hear about my test drive (he knows how much I hate the entire process). While we were eating it got cloudier and cloudier outside. After eating, I went back to the doctor's office and had my blood drawn. It was starting to look pretty threatening out. I turned on the radio to the local jazz station in time to hear sirens. A severe thunderstorm warning for Washtenaw County had just been declared -- the storm was out in Chelsea and heading for Saline -- just like the ones last night.

So I raced home. By the time I got to the intersection of Moon and Michigan, the sky was unreal. There was a rapidly advancing line of horrifying darkness, all roiled and hideous...raced even faster. Then the wind caught me at Moon and Willis. It was whipping about the trees, and so many leaves and small branches were coming down it was very hard to see to drive. As I pulled into our driveway and got out of the car the hail started. As soon as I ran into the house the power died. All you could hear was the drumming of the hail onto the house, and the roaring of the wind. That dark sky was overhead...I was sure there would be a tornado...and the kids were due to get out of school in just a few minutes...

So of course, you worry. Will the schools have the sense to keep the kids inside? They won't really have them walk home/get on the busses in this, will they? And then, when so much time goes by after the normal arrival time, and there is no sign of the bus, you worry about that...but the storm receded, and the children got home about half an hour late, merrily scooping up handfuls of hail, all happy because it is Friday...in Milan the sirens had gone off, and there had been a tornado warning, so they kept the children late at school, until they could safely walk home/get on the busses...and the power just came back up, about six hours later...so all is well, though we lost a lot of big branches from the trees, and most of my flowers have been stripped of their petals...at one point it looked like it had been snowing because of all of the hail on the ground...

Did we ever have a horrible storm last night! The tornado sirens went off in Ann Arbor just as I was leaving work...driving home was so odd. It was like driving through one of those electricity balls they have in science centers. There was no rain, or wind at all. But there was nonstop lightning in all directions...I had forgotten my cell phone (of all days!) so couldn't call home and tell Dan to get the kids into the basement, so drove home at about 80MPH, ran into the house just as the rain started, and dragged everyone out of bed and down to the basement...the super cell that caused the tornado warning had been in Chelsea and heading in a straight line towards Saline at 70MPH. Given the storm that hit last night, I think the edge of it brushed us. Wild stuff. They even set off the sirens at the jail in an attempt to warn people to stay indoors...

This morning started out sunny, but now looks like its getting cloudy. I think I shall have to shut the windows before I leave to go on my test drives & MD office visit...more wild storms are due in tonight...right now they are over somewhere on the other side of Lake Michigan...