We had another day of thunderstorms and tornadoes in the area. The weathermen, still nervous over the first outbreak, sent out warnings several days in advance, even warning of a possible loss of life if the weather turned as severe as the first time.

Sadly, it did. The first warning was an early morning thunderstorm that swept over the city dropping a deluge of rain with pea-size hail. I needed to get more groceries, so I waited until it had passed well beyond the city and the radar was clear over the adjoining state. The worst was predicted for the afternoon.

I got the produce at our local Easy Way and studied the sky a bit. It was somewhat cloudy but calm. I decided to make a run for the Big Lots for the cheap canned goods and goodies. By the time I got out, rain was splattering down. That was not good, and I decided to cancel the run to the Hobby Lobby and headed for home.

The skies opened up like a fire hose laced with pea-size hail by the time I had gotten a few blocks. I prayed for calmness and strength and drove on carefully. The rain worsened into near-whiteout conditions. I've never seen rain so dense, with hailstones exploding on my windshield and hood. I took a jog to a side street that fortunately took me around the worst of the thunderstorm.

The streets were still flooded in the low areas, the storm drains unable to handle the downpour. Cars were spraying heavy sheets of water even in the higher areas. The thunder rumbled loudly, but the rain was too dense to see any lightning. It finally lightened up when I was about half a mile from home.

I passed the local school and noted in amazement that the children were being picked up. The schools had been ordered closed by noon because of the threat of even more severe weather. It is the first time the schools here have been closed early for severe weather outside of winter storms. This was a warm spring day between thunderstorms.

The storms fired up and spawned tornadoes in the area for the rest of the day well into the evening. At least eleven people were killed, and even more property damage was done. Many areas in west Tennessee have been declared disaster areas from the combined storm damage. There was baseball-size hail in some areas.

The weekend weather was cooler after the front pushed through, but the predicted daytime highs for the early part of the week are ominously predicted to be in the 70's and perhaps low 80's degrees F. If we have more strong cold fronts pushing through with all that heat and moisture in the air, we could get another series of severe thunderstorms.

That kind of rain is what the weathermen call weather of Biblical proportions, the sort that could float Noah's Ark if it kept up long enough. I'd say that Someone is trying to get our attention, particularly since Easter is coming up this week.

We have an important vote coming up to put a vote on abortion rights in Tennessee on the ballot for an upcoming election. A number of pro-life representatives won their elections and hopefully will tip the balance to get the bills passed to get the necessary questions included in an election soon, but the pro-abortion officials are still fighting hard to uphold the court finding of a right to abortion and deny the people of the state of Tennessee the chance to have their say on what the state constitution should say about elective abortion.

I was pondering the hypocrisy of the whole situation. Abortion was legalized at a time when the liberals were spitting on Vietnam veterans as baby killers for their service to defend the people of South Vietnam from the Communists, yet they were working for abortion clinics to kill their own babies. The Communists use abortion for population control, even forced abortion in China when a couple conceives a child without state permission. Just who were, or are, the real baby killers here?

We are seeing war protests about Iraq along the same line of thought, ignoring the fact that our brave troops are trying to stop the terrorists now murdering Iraqi citizens by the dozen by the day so that the Iraqis can form a government to ensure their peace and freedom from such tyranny by force. They are even protesting at soldiers' funerals, so much so that there may have to be laws passed to protect the grieving families and friends so they can lay their loved ones to rest in peace and honor. Who are the real vicious war-mongers here?

I went to my ABWA (American Business Women's Association) chapter board meeting this week and we brainstormed about more things to increase the membership. The spring membership drive is underway and we still haven't coaxed any guests into joining this time. We're trying to gather lots of guests for a fashion show in less than two weeks. I'm planning to do a follow-up article for our website and the local newspapers publishing our meeting notices afterwards, too. I even volunteered to be Secretary again next year. I can't believe I did that, but it fits in so well with the website and newsletter. I also took over being Publicity Chairperson. I'm feeling rather mad with power.

The crafting continues on with the sweater steadily growing and the latest towel nearly done. I knit on by declaring a todo done every eight rows for a towel and every four rows for a sweater, thus marking a task off my organizer list. It doesn't sound like much work accomplished, but I'm not into delayed gratification in either crafting or chocolate. My organizer is too overloaded to schedule more. I work more in when I rest between other tasks.