quick update

    We were very fortunate not to feel but the barest effects of Hurricane Ivan, being on the far west edges of its path. Lots of leaves and pinecones in the yard, a few twigs and only a few branches off one of the large old pines in the back yard. Our power never even flickered; all my clocks were still set this morning.     But I suppose I was subconsciously more anxious than I thought; I had very unusual pains in my stomach since early afternoon yesterday, just about the time the outer bands started hitting the Gulf Coast. I had one son 40 miles north and one about half-mile east -- they were safe, but I'm still a mom and I guess I was concerned.     I napped on the sofa most of the late evening, and finally went to the bedroom when the eyewall was still about 50 miles off the coast of Mobile. Usually, the bedroom door is closed to keep out the cats, but I left it open last night so I could hear to the other end of the house. Slept horribly, but not due to the cats joining me or even chasing each other this morning. The winds and rain never woke me as I expected them to, but I woke up just the same (and frequently) to check. Lots of strange and troubling dreams... like TOTALLY forgetting to do the reading and work for one class for the whole semester and then remembering on the very day of the final that I had that class! Campus shut down on Tuesday night; no classes until Monday, so plenty of time to catch up on my psych chapters. Except that I've only been knitting!     We took a ride to check on a couple friends this morning, picked up some ground beef at the grocery and hubby made a great batch of gringo chili. It's in the 80s, but some how it 'feels' like chili weather... stormy?? Who knows. I'm just weird.     Off to do some reading for religion and psych. Blessing to all who weren't so fortunate from Ivan.     Oh! By the way, that paper I had to write -- got my grade: all 50 possible points. Have also had one test in that class and scored a 90, plus 5 extra credit points, so feeling pretty good about this class so far. LC