Ever notice how time slows to a standstill when you're waiting for a monumental occurrence?  I swear these last two days have moved slower than molasses running uphill in January!  The watching and waiting for Frances...she's slowed down and been downgraded to a category 2 hurricane.  That's a good thing, but she's moving so slow, staying in one place for far too long and with sustained winds at 105mph and all the rain she's carrying...what a mess.  So far, I've only heard of one death and I continue to pray that statistic stays low. 

If she stays on the projected course, it looks like our area will be spared and feel mostly tropical storm forced winds and rain, which is still dangerous, but nothing compared to what the Bahamas just went through.  Still, we watch and wait, and will finish boarding up the house, just in case. 

While I type this I wonder how Jodie (GnomeGoddess) is doing.  I pray she is safe.  I hold on to that hope for all Floridians and anyone in Frances' path.

On a lighter note, I recently turned the big 4-0 and my dad sent along this email, so I thought I'd share.  It's George Carlin's View on Aging.

            Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we
            like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10
            years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in
            fractions.

                    "How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never
            thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five!
            That's the key.

                    You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back.
            You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.  "How old are
            you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna
            be 16!

                    And then the greatest day of your life . . you become
            21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . . . YOU BECOME 21.
            YESSSS!!!

                    But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there?
            Makes you sound like bad milk.  He TURNED; we had to throw him
            out.  There's no fun now, you're just a sour-dumpling. What's
            wrong?  What's changed?

                    You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40.
            Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you
            know it, you REACH 50 ... and your dreams are gone.

                    But wait!!!  You MAKE it to 60.  You didn't think you
            would!  So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE
            it to 60.

                    You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70!  After
            that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!  You get into
            your 80s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you
            TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime.  And it doesn't end there. Into
            the 90s, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."

                    Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100,
            you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"

                    May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

      
                          AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

                    Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
            but by the moments that take our breath away.