July 3, 2012, Altoona, Pennsylvania, 5:22 p.m., D.S.T.~

Skate Harrington here.  Hope this finds you all well.

I am tired.  Tired of the weather the way it is.  Had another round of severe storms roll through our area; some of the storms were packing winds in excess of 70 miles an hour (hurricane force), and there was widespread damage in some spots, not to mention, numerous power outages due to the very high winds.

We may be in line for yet more storms today, tonight, and tomorrow, but after tomorrow night, then the storm machine shuts off until Saturday.  Hope not; I may aspire to be a storm chaser and/or a meteorologist, but frankly, I'm beginning to get all storm'ed out!  I am more than ready for ample sunshine and dry weather!!

My family is fine.  The sibs are enjoying their time off from school, and the baby, Morgan (who is not really a baby anymore; she's now a big, strapping, very active three-year-old toddler), is still battling the diaper and toilet training demon.  She is extremely spoiled and demands attention 24  hours a day.  She's a pain a lot of the time!

Shene had to go to summer school: he flunked three of his classes this past school semester: English, Math,  and History.  He just finished summer school last week.  

Scott had to spend some time in a juvenile facility after he tried to set a neighbor's cat on fire.  I don't know what possessed him to do such a horrible thing, but Mom and Dad are very upset with him and are watching him closely, like a hawk.  Our cat, "Smokey",  a short-haired Munchkin cat who is mostly grey, is now staying at Grandma's house, where he is, I'm sure, a lot safer, not to mention, happier.  I miss him; I miss his loud, rumbling purrs and his crazy kitten antics.

My other two sisters, Shadie and Shaylah, who are 9 and 7, both were in the hospital over Easter break: Shaylah had to get her tonsils removed and Shadie had a very bad asthma attack; she nearly died after she was found to have an adverse reaction to one of the medications they gave her to try to counteract the attack.  It was a very scary, stressful time, but thank God she recovered and is now okay.

Tomorrow we are going to our aunt and uncle's farm to spend the Fourth.  While there we can shoot off fireworks and play with the sparklers when it gets dark and watch some of the fireworks displays that are around us.  I just  hope the rains we had don't ruin any chances of seeing any (besides our own, that is).  The grounds are sopping wet and it's gonna take weeks for the damage to be repaired and/or power fully restored.

In the morning, we will probably go to downtown Altoona, where we will watch the parade and maybe go to the church nearest us, where they are feeding Veterans, military personnel, and their families; if there is anyone who is military or retired, they can eat free, and so can their family members, which I think is a pretty awesome deal.  (Our dad is retired Air Force.  He was in for ten years and got out just after I was born.)

We will then go to the local park where they will have all day events commemorating the holiday and at dusk, the fireworks will be shot off.  Yet we won't see those because we'll be at our uncle and aunt's farm, shooting off our own fireworks.

Well, I hope you have a great Fourth.  We plan to, but again, I'm worried that there won't be any.  Due to the grounds being so saturated, several communities are canceling any firework shows, and I don't want our city to be added to that list.  That would just totally sUCK!!  Take care and talk to you again!

~Skate.