The rain is coming; I have been excited for days. I can't wait to wake up and hear it on the roof. I can imagine all the plants stretching their dying roots to suck it up.

My Dad came for breakfast yesterday morning--scrambled eggs, toast with butter and jelly. He planted some fall crops: spinach, lettuce, beets, carrots, even though it was pretty hot already in the morning. This is in anticipation of the inches of rain we are supposed to get from a tropical storm in the Gulf headed our way.

Ray wanted to get the last of the tree he has been working on. I went and sat in the truck, waiting to call 911 if need be. He cut 5 huge slices off the bottom of this tree trunk, but they were too heavy to get in the truck. This took over an hour. He got a couple in (I was not much help) and split one to take back in two pieces, but left the rest to come back for today.

I was anxious to go to the Farmers' Market, but we always have someone there when anyone is working with a chain saw. We finally left about 11:30 and there wasn't much to buy--onions, potatoes, cucumbers. So expensive. I bought a pound of sausage for $6. We needed lettuce for a salad for a dinner party, so went to Kroger afterwards. Now it was lunchtime, so we stopped and got some giant ("medium") smoothies, which tided us over well. I do most of my shopping at Earth Fare these days, but some things are impossible to find or outrageously expensive. We bought two bags of dog food, some wine, and a pork roast, among other things.

Back home, put the groceries away and ate some lunch (leftover goulash--yum!). I managed to run the vacuum for the first time in weeks. And I took the pictures of my Mom off the display board to start scanning. It will be very time consuming (we have an old scanner hooked up to an old computer), but I look forward to having them all safely "digitized." I was a little sad after that.

Luckily, we were invited to dinner at Jane's house. She had invited us for the Friday after my Mom died and we had to cancel. This time, we brought a green salad with a delicous homemade dressing: oil & vinegar, mustard, garlic, chives from the pot out front (just barely still green). There were friends from the Fellowship there--Herb and Myrna, Michelle and Jim. It was a pleasure to talk politics safely. Ted was trying to get everyone to say who they thought the Republican presidential candidate would be. Jane served hot dogs and hamburgers in honor of the end of summer. Michelle brought potato salad and cole slaw. Jane had delicious baked beans, too. I ate cheese and crackers and drank wine, passed on a bun for my burger. The dessert? A delicious strawberry shortcake--a frosted cake with strawberries between the layers, whipped cream, and more strawberries on top.

Sadly, eating and drinkling like that gave me a rough night. At one point, I woke up and Ray was somewhere else. This morning, I had dry mouth and general discomfort. I would previously have said I had too much wine, which is partly true--maybe 3 glasses over 3 hours. But I think the pre-diabetes is part of why I don't feel great this morning. Not that I wouldn't do it again--maybe skip the crackers or ask for a smaller piece of cake. And limit the wine.