Friday night things

 * Yesterday was the retirement celebration for one of my colleagues. We had a lunch (the first since late 2019) and we had ordered a few gifts for him. He *almost* cried when he saw the card we had all signed.

*Lunch was lasagna and then there was both cake and pie. And then in the evening it was the AAUW dinner out, and we had reservations at a local Mexican place. (Yes, Cinco de Mayo is not a good time to go out for Mexican. Their waiters are *very* professional but they were still really having to run, and it took a long time for all of us to get our food. (I got a combo plate: an enchilada and a burrito. I asked for chicken (enchiladas suizas) but got beef with lots of cheese on it. I didn't complain, though, at that point I was hungry and I was the very last to get my food, so)

* But it was too much rich food on top of an already-irritated GI tract, and so today I've off and on been having pain and indigestion. (Also possible: there was one of the things I'm intolerant to in some of the food). Despite that, I did get the lawn mowed, and a couple more loads taken to the storage unit, and some cleaning done. More cleaning tomorrow - I had thought of maybe going to Denison for fun, but (a) I probably need to stick close to home with my slightly upset GI tract (and need to eat bland, low-fat food for a couple days) and also probably am better off not buying any more stuff/spending any more money.

* I did have a *tiny* celebration today - went by the snow-cone place and got a big snow cone. Yeah, I probably don't need the sugar but it tasted good to me. Got my favorite flavor (color? design? I think a lot of these taste same-ish - kind of like my comment about Blue Flavor Gatorade the other day). It's called Wonder Woman - blue and red (coconut and cherry I think) with a tiny bit of gold (pineapple) and gold-tinted sugar on top. 

* There's a kind-of-horrific (since so many of us lack basements and have to shelter there) but kind of funny/mind-blowing story making the rounds: lightning comes down a fan duct, explodes toilet. The picture is striking. But it is scary if you think about how many people shelter in interior bathrooms in tornado warnings (which usually happen during severe thunderstorms). I assume it was a one in a billion shot as this is the first time I've ever heard of this happening, but still.

It makes me glad that in my weird old house there's no actual vent to the outdoors. I suppose lightning could strike the chimney for the gas furnace on the roof (though more likely it would strike the pecan tree, which is taller than my house)

When I was a very small child (my brother had not been born yet), the house we were in in Ohio was struck by lightning. Well, the chimney was. Part of it came down (not a big part) and the insurance company hired someone to replace the damaged bricks (substandard bricks were used; the chimney was painted white and those replacement bricks ALWAYS spalled off the paint the whole rest of the time we lived there). I just barely remember it - my mother bailing water in the basement (it flooded in heavy rain) and handing the buckets up to my dad out the basement window. I was sitting on the open wood steps (no risers, just treads) and was sitting turned around (when I was little, I was thin enough I could sit with my legs between the treads, where the risers would be). I could see what was going on from there but my parents felt it was safe enough. (My mom says she felt a slight shock when the chimney was hit. I guess we were lucky in that neither of them were injured). 

* Tomorrow is graduation but I didn't sign up to go. I think I'm glad. I hope my stomach is better but I'm also glad that I won't have to sit in a room with that many people. I admit I was nervous at the restaurant last night but our group was a reasonable distance from the other patrons. 

* I don't know. I have a hard time negotiating things now. Like, "is this restaurant meal worth a breakthrough infection and the admittedly-tiny-but-still-real chance of long covid?" I would almost always answer "no." (I do hope restaurants keep the easy take-out process forever; sometimes it's nice just to pick up food and eat it in peace at home. Yes, you still have dishes, but you don't have to cook)