Thunder In the Morning.

BOOM!

A clap of thunder louder than a cannon got me up around 6:30. I ran around the house, closing all the windows, then promptly returned to bed. The storm was rather soothing after the noise moved on, even if the rain sounded odd pattering on the tarp. I briefly considered checking the floor in the kitchen and dining area under the tarp, but then I closed my eyes for five minutes...

And when I opened them, it was 8:30. Charlie's men were already hammering outside my new front door. To my dismay, no, the tarp did not stop the rain from coming in and soaking the carpet. There were two big wet spots in the kitchen and another in the dining area, near the windows. At the very least, it was also on-and-off cloudy, windy, and a bit cooler.

After I ate quickly, I spent most of the morning once again working on writing. Jenkins formally arrests Luke, Henry, and Charles and sends them down into the hold. He intends to use them as "entertainment" for his guests...by feeding them to the numerous sharks in Shaw Cay. He also has no intention of releasing Leia, whom he strokes and fondles like a precious poodle. Luke has a plan. Henry's skeptical, to say the least, but Charles and Rusty know what the boy has in mind...

Broke around 1:30 for lunch. This time, I just had a quick slice of mushroom and slice of cheese pizza and can of Dew SA from Phillies Phatties. It was cloudy but cooler, probably into the upper 70's-lower 80's. I enjoyed the delicious breeze blowing in while watching huge groups of kids get off early from the Oaklyn School, heading to Phillies Phatties or Common Grounds Coffee House for a snack.

As soon as I got home, I got organized, got changed, and headed to work a little early again. Work was pretty much the same as Monday - quiet when I arrived and when I left, busy during rush hour. And rush hour was really bad today, for some reason. The traffic was bumper-to-bumper on the Black Horse Pike going home between 3:30 and about 5. I have no idea why it was so crazy. Maybe a lot of people have kids who finished school today and decided to hit the Shore early?

I was outside watching it for a lot of the day. I cleaned the bathrooms for the first half-hour, then did the outdoor trash and rounded up carts. For some reason, we now have to gather the trash for the entire building and down by the bus stop, instead of just around the Acme. I can understand picking it up by the former Marburn Curtains store, but shouldn't Rent-a-Center be able to get their own trash? And the bus stop should really be the Town of Audubon's responsibility.

At least I got to do it on a beautiful evening. By 6, the clouds had vanished completely, but the wonderfully cool breeze remained. It was sunny and warm, but not nearly as hot. A lot of the morning's humidity had disappeared, too.

When I got home, the men were long gone. I opted for a nice, long, quiet soak in the tub instead of a hurried shower. I so needed it. I haven't had one in ages. I kicked back, browsed through my two new Christmas With Southern Living books, and listened to one of the Those Were the Days CDs I picked up at Abbie Road last month.

Oh, and in good news, Charlie did cover the roof - no more tarp. In frustrating news, he hasn't covered anything else. The beams are still exposed, as is the siding around the door. I knew it was going to take him a lot longer to do this than two days. I just hope he doesn't take much longer. The storms are supposed to linger for a lot of the weekend.