It's Christmas!

It's Christmas time and with all the economy problems, job losses, etc., it's hard to get my mind into it. But, I'm getting there. Christmas always makes me think of my dad. He absolutely loved Christmas. It's a good thing, too, because there were 10 children in our family and he pretty much had to. But, he did love it, especially the bubble lights. From a little girl, I remember we always had bubble lights on our tree. We always had a huge tree, too, with lots of colored lights (they didn't have clear lights back then...at least not that I ever knew about). The tree was always a live tree and I can just close my eyes and remember the scent of the evergreen. And tinsel....we always had lots of silver tinsel on the tree.
He liked to cook and he always made homemade fudge at Christmas. The old-fashioned, beat-with-a-spoon kind. Still the best I've ever had.
With that many kids, there were a lot of packages under the tree, even if we only got 2 presents apiece, it added up. I remember Mom saying one year she only had $7 apiece to spend on us and managed to get us each 2 gifts. We would come down the stairs Christmas morning and just be awed by the sight. This was after we had been awakened by the sound of a spoon banging on a pan coming from the bottom of the stairs. Yep! Dad! Couldn't wait to get us up and he would stand down there and bang that spoon and holler "Santa Claus was here". One Christmas, Santa brought bikes for the 2 younger boys in the family. "Santa" finished putting them together at about 3:30 am, then decided he would get all of us kids up - right then! I know my mother would gladly have strangled him at that moment, but too many witnesses by then, you know!! As I think back about that, I wonder just how much Christmas cheer he had had by 3:30 in the morning!!
When I got married and left home, we went home for Christmas for several years before we finally established our own Christmas tradition in our own home. The first year we went home for Christmas, we were opening presents on Christmas morning and my mom opened a "made in school" gift from my sister, Peggy, who was probably around 7 years old that year. I, of course, being the type of person who's mouth starts before her brain is in gear, blurted out, "What IS that?" My mom immediately said to Peggy "Lynn doesn't know what that is. Why don't you tell her what it is." Turns out it was a napkin holder. Also turns out that Mom didn't know what it was, either, and I gave her the opportunity to find out without hurting little feelings.
We always went to Sunday School, so were always in the Christmas program at the church. (I wish the church we go to now had a family with a lot of kids like ours did; our family pretty much provided most of the cast). Anyway, one of my brothers, Steve, is rather shy about some things to this day, but I remember him getting up and reciting a poem at one of the programs. Something about a present and he had to stand up there and open up a box that had about 6 or 7 graduated smaller boxes and he would have to open each one only to find another box to open in that one. I can't imagine him doing anything like that today. Wish we had had video cameras back then.
So, as I put up my little 4' tree this year, I thought back to Christmases growing up and said a quiet thank you to my dad and mom for giving me the love of Christmas that will forever be in my heart. Now....if I could just get these bubble lights to work!
Merry Christmas, everyone. God Bless each and every one of you.

GOING HOME

We went home this past weekend. Home, for me, is Alton, KS located on Highway 24 in north central Kansas. When we lived there, the population was 330 people. Small-town America at its finest. My Uncle Bill passed away at the age of 84 and we went home for his funeral. It was a little unsettling to me that I don't have a lot of memories of Uncle Bill. They certainly don't come to me easily, anyway. I just remember him as a farmer, always quiet, and not one to socialize a lot. But, then, a lot of farmers didn't have time to socialize, so I guess that's not real unique. Listening to his family relive their memories of him, I was struck by his wit, his love for family and God, and his orneriness. Like I said, I don't remember any of that part of him, but my memory is not good about a lot of things way back then.
We lived in town and went to church in town and he lived in the country and went to church in the country and we just didn't get together a lot. I found out he sang in quartets, taught his daughter-in-law, Jan, to drive a 10-speed truck by getting it to the last gear, then jumping out and telling her to drive it on into town to deliver a load of wheat and I learned he went AWOL from the Navy for one night to see his girlfriend, my future Aunt Marjorie. They were married for 65 years. Uncle Bill has "Gone Home" now and I know he and my mother, his sister, are catching up in Heaven.
This just happened to be the weekend of the Alton Jubilee, a yearly event sponsored by the Alton Pride organization. The town has pretty much closed up except for a gas station and a hardware store. There are a few old buildings left that are nothing but memories now and that is hard to see when we go home. The Jubilee brings in a lot of the people who still live in town and outside of town. Kinda like the Saturday nights when I was growing up when everyone came to town to do their shopping and visiting and checking out books from the library, etc. They have a parade in the morning, then lunch, pie-baking contest, games and entertainment in the park, supper, and then the Bull City Opry Company puts on a show in the park that night. The show has a cast of local actors and singers and musicians and is very well attended. There were probably around 400 people there Saturday night. I've only seen one other one, but this one was just a hoot!!!! The people you least expect to be funny usually end up stealing the show and that was the case this year. Very enjoyable and my hat's off to the directors!
We saw many people there that I remember growing up around. It strikes you when you see these people how some have really aged and others hardly any at all. One lady had turned 88 years old that day and I never saw her sit down...she was too busy standing there talking to friends. And, of course, a couple of the girlfriends were there and we always enjoy our time with them. It certainly made a sad trip a little easier.

Mad About You TP Scene

T.P. Blues

T.P. Blues and More

Some famous celebrity activist do-do recently stated that we should start using 1 sheet of toilet paper in the bathroom. We laugh, chortle, guffaw.....but apparently someone or more than one someone in our office believes in that idea. Oh, not for them; for the next person who uses the bathroom after them. I can't count the times when I have gone to the bathroom only to find approximately one sheet left on the roll. So, the dilemma is - use the tiny bit left trying not to get your hand any wetter than you absolutely have to - and you WILL get it wet - OR get up and drip your way over to the drawer that holds the supply and then drip your way back over to the commode to use it. I wonder if that person actually pre-meditates this - making sure they get their share, but leaving that tiny bit on the roll. Well, you know darned well they do. It takes so much energy and time to change the roll that, well, you know, they just don't have time in their busy lives to do it. AND if they don't know there is an extra supply in the drawer, they are apparently too busy to tell someone in the office that the bathroom needs paper. Pass the buck! Let the next person handle it.
So, this morning, not only was this the case, BUT the paper towel roll was empty. Still sitting on the towel holder - are you ready for this? - with a new roll of paper towels sitting right next to it! Someone HAD to use the last paper towel on the roll and see that new roll sitting there. Change it out? Nope, too busy probably.
All of this is inconsiderate and lazy as far as I'm concerned. And, it's not just at the office. Same way at my house. My husband has gotten better at the toilet paper problem - at least he now sets a new roll on the counter right above the holder so the next time I come in I can see that there is no paper on the holder and take care of it. Reminds me of an episode of Mad About You where Helen Hunt walks into the living room where Paul Reiser is sitting, asks him for his full attention, then shows him the toilet paper roll and holder bar in her hand - puts the toilet paper on the bar - then asks him "what part of this don't you understand?". I fell out of my chair laughing.
We also have the paper towel problem at home. They know where the extra ones are, but apparently the door to the pantry is too hard to open or something. They never seem to be able to.
So, at least I know the problem is taken care of for today. Come to think of it, tho, I think Helen Hunt had a good idea. Gotta go - need to call a meeting of everyone in the office.........

SMILE PRETTY, NOW.....

Our church is working on the Church Directory since it has been about 5 years since we've done one. So, that means picture-taking time for the members. This past Monday was the appointed day to show up to smile for the camera. Olan Mills is the company who takes the pictures and prints directories for thousands of churches. They do a good job, altho I really think anyone who can do desktop publishing and take pictures with a digital camera could put one together and alleviate a lot of the hassle involved. Anyway, hubby and I get there for our appointed time and the pictures are taken. After a few minutes, we are called in to the "Sales" room where the pictures are available for viewing immediately and we can pick the ones we want in the directory and decide which "package" we would like to buy so we can give pictures to friends and family who likely throw them in a drawer somewhere and find them every year or two when they decide to clean that drawer out! Well, not all of them do that. I know my son and daughter display theirs proudly and prominently, at least when we are visiting. Sorry, kids, only kidding! Back to the Sales room. Our salesman's name was Rahm and he was definitely out to make a huge commission. He started off showing us the packages that were available. Lowest price package was $420! That's for five 5x7's and 24 wallets and includes all the proofs. Retouched. Framed. I said we didn't need the frames and he says the frames come with them. Well, cool, I won't have to go look for frames. Now we're going to get a $100 discount for something - probably because it's a church project. Okay, great. Then he also gives us the "gray hair" discount. Another $30 bucks or so off. So, now we're down to less than $300 - plus tax. In the end we're forking over a little over $300. Well, it's been 5 years since we had pictures taken, so what the heck. Besides, these were actually the best pictures we've had taken....ever. Paid it and left. The next day, several of us members were at a meeting and the picture taking subject came up. Seems there are packages "without the frames" that were offered to others, but not to all. Apparently you had to fight tooth and nail to get them, but you could do it. Also seems as if there was inconsistent pricing as some got the same packages for different amounts of money. And..there were many complaints about the rudeness of the salespeople - there was another salesperson there besides the one we had. Pushy and rude were the words that were used. Well, I now have a CAUSE!!! Whoopee! Something to sink my teeth into and get straightened out because it just wasn't right. So, I e-mail everyone to let me know the problems they had and contacted the pastor and he contacted our rep for Olan Mills. All we have to do is call an 800 number and they will change the order right there on the phone. Before calling, I checked to see if the pictures were up on the Olan Mills website first and they were, so I checked to make sure the pictures on the invoice were the ones I really wanted. Fine, there...UNTIL...I notice the pictures noted on the invoice that were to be put in the directory. The two WORST pictures of them all (two because I also had to have a Staff picture done of just me). Called the number, got the customer service person on the phone who took care of changing my order. Saved me $136. Good job. When I mention the pictures that were picked to put in the directory, I was told the only ones that can be put in the directory are the ones with the light-colored background. The dark-colored backgrounds are the best ones, of course! Luckily, the Staff picture could be changed as there was another one I liked better in the light background. So all is not lost. I just hope I don't have to wait forever to get my credit back on my credit card. So, to my family and friends, when you get the picture in a couple of months, leave it out in full view for at least a week! At least I'll know then it was worth it. Oh, yeah, sorry they aren't "retouched". That's another $30!!

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ON THE ROAD AGAIN

We've been on vacation the last 10 days. In the car..for hours and hours..just the two of us..for hours and hours... We survived it, so that is something to be thankful for. Actually, this was the best trip together..in the car..for all those hours..in years! Okay. I'll cut it out. Actually, there were 3 of us in that car, hubby Roger, me AND the guy reading the audio book we purchased to listen to on the trip. Actually, there were 2 books, but I slept through most of the first one, a Louis Lamour western. I actually bought that one to appease Roger so I could then listen to the one I really wanted to hear, The Last Juror, by John Grisham. Now, that was a good book. Of course, both books only lasted one-way on the trip, so we listened to music on the way home. You know, that Tennessee Ernie Ford could SING!!! We had his 40-song hymn collection and it was very enjoyable.
So - we visited old friends in Kansas which is always enjoyable. That was my first birthday celebration, complete with a very pretty decorated cake and ice cream. It was my actual birthday and very fun to celebrate with them.
On to Nebraska to visit family. A Sister Get-Together was planned at the bowling alley and restaurant/bar owned by one of my sisters. Two sisters had to work, so we had five there. I did get to see one of the working sisters on Saturday, but we are thinking about putting out an All Points Bulletin for the other one. We did Karaoke and several of the Senior Citizens from the Center down the street came in and listened to us. The afternoon was cut a little short because of storms moving in, but it was fun. Later that night, we spent about 45 minutes in the basement of my sister's house in Grand Island NE while the tornado sirens sounded. The bad part of the storm missed us, but we got a lot of rain.
We traveled on to Omaha on Friday afternoon to spend some time with my daughter and her hubby and two boys. My son and his wife and their two young adult kids also came to Omaha so we were all together for the first time in a couple of years. Had another birthday celebration there. With 6 guests and only one guestroom, my daughter managed to fix up a place for everyone to sleep and we all had a door on our room. Grandson Trevin's door was a sheet, but it WAS a door. Luckily she does have a large home and can utilize their office and den as bedrooms. She also has turned into quite a good cook and the food was awesome. We all had a wonderful time. All guests left around noonish, so I'm sure there were naps all around after we left!
We decided to drive straight through to Texas - 11 hours. It actually seemed to go pretty fast. So, we're back to work and getting back into the routine. Until next year, when we will do it all over again...in the car...for hours and hours......

PREP....WHAT?

I am without my wedding ring for the first time ever for an extended period of time. I have been trying to heal an ant bite underneath the ring for 3 weeks and it just wasn't working. Not getting enough air, I assume, as my ring is a wide ring. I couldn't get the ring off because I've developed arthritis in my finger and my knuckle swells. Not that I didn't try! Soap, lotion, vaseline, cussing...nothing worked. I finally decided Saturday that I would try once more so I soaked my hand in cold water and tried it. Still not moving. So, to the internet I go to see what I can find out there. First good suggestion I found was using Windex. There is apparently something in Windex that will make it slide off. So I go looking for my Windex....I know I had at least 1/3 bottle a few weeks ago. Can't find it anywhere. Back to the internet....there was a suggestion about using dental floss and wrapping your finger with it, then working the ring off. Actually, this cuts the circulation off to your finger allowing the finger to apparently shrink. Didn't try that...I need that finger to work again after I get the ring off. Scrolling on down, a suggestion to use.....Preparation H! My first thought was, of course, eeewwww! I didn't really even want to admit I HAD that in my house. And how was that any different from Vaseline? Oh, yeah....it shrinks the swelling! I'm off and running to the bathroom cabinet now and slathering that stuff on my finger. The ring was actually moving up. I got it right on top of the knuckle and it stuck! Now I'm thinking I'm really in a pickle because it wasn't going up OR back down and I could just see them trying to cut that ring off and telling me I would after all lose that finger! Panic time! The thought occurred to me that I actually had gotten past the worst part of the knuckle, so I just kept twisting. Another 30 seconds or so and the ring slid off. Thankful prayers to God were the order of the next 5 minutes or so. And the healing has begun! Now......they say that stuff works really good for the bags under your eyes.....Naw! Not on my face, I'm not!

SHARPS - NO FLATS!!

On the right in the picture gallery, you can see a picture of 20 music students from Alvarado High School. These students all earned 1 ratings at Regional Music Contest and will be going to Austin next week to sing at State Solo/Ensemble Contest. For the past 2 years I have had the honor of being one of the piano accompanists for the students at Alvarado. And, believe me, it is definitely an honor. This year, I will be accompanying all 20 for their solos and I am really looking forward to it. These students are committed to doing the best job they can do and come through with flying colors. They are all a pleasure to be around and are a good example of the kind of young adults we always hope our children will be. Their parents should all be very proud of them. And, of course, along with the committed students are the music directors who instill the love of music in these young minds and are as committed as the students are. Let's all send good thoughts to these students as they embark on their trip next week.

SISTERS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YhTKiFEMAg

SISTERS! GOTTA LOVE 'EM! OR DO YA?

I have 6 sisters, all younger than me. When Mom passed away 2 years ago, Sister Deb came up with something called Sister Day to replace Mother's Day. Each sister gets their own day in a specified month. Names and dates are drawn and whoever's name each sister gets is their Secret Sister and that sister then sends a gift to her designated sister to arrive on or before that date. No one knows when the dates are or who has which sister's name. One of the established rules is that we put the date of the Sister Day on the outside of the package and if that package arrives before the designated date, the package can't be opened until the exact day. So, I know you're confused by now, but bear with me. Sister Deb has a slight "mean streak" in her nature (one of my uncles told me years ago that this "mean streak" is a trait of the Johnston family, my mother's side) and she thought it would be fun to make us suffer if we got ours early and had to wait to open it. So, the point is......I received my Sister Day gift today and can't open it until tomorrow! It's sitting here on my desk and I swear I hear it calling to me, "open me, open me". But, alas, I can't. I'm sworn to sticking by the rules. Or so they are trying to tell me. Sister Billie is my Secret Sister and she is a big stickler for the rules, too. Sister Deb is, of course, laughing her head off (and that's a quote from her) because...well...there's that mean streak, you know. So, I will be good and wait until tomorrow. Think I'll take it home with me tonight and set my alarm to 12:01am and open it, and then call all 6 sisters at 12:15. Hey, it says in the rules that when you open it you are supposed to let all the other sisters know what you got and who it was from. One Ringy Dingy, Two Ringy Dingies.....

Glitterfy.com - Glitter Graphics

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MY MOM

Since Mothers Day is Sunday, I want to write about my mom. Mom was a Kansas girl, born and raised on a farm in the times of dust storms, jackrabbit infestations, and the depression. She met my dad when she was in high school and married him a few months before graduation. She became a mother in 1944 when I was born and went on to have 9 more children after me. She was only 5' tall, but managed to herd us kids through life pretty darned well. I don't know how she managed it, but when she got a certain "tone" to her voice, we pretty well knew she meant business when we were acting up, etc. Control in the midst of chaos most of the time. She told me once that all she ever wanted to be was a mother.....however, if someone would have told her she would have 10 children, she would have told them they were crazy. But she did, and she did it well. She didn't have a lot of the things that we all have today...for instance, she didn't have a clothes dryer until I was a Senior in high school. She (and we) hung the clothes outside to dry them. And with that many kids there were always clothes on the line. And no permanent press...we had multiple baskets of clothes to iron which we would "sprinkle" with water in a coke bottle with a sprinkler lid on top, roll the clothes up and let them stand for awhile, then iron for hours. She would never let us older girls iron the younger girls dresses with ruffles, tho. She said we didn't do a good enough job. That's another thing...we were always clean and people used to comment on how clean the Ritchie kids were when they went to town. That took some doing, too, as we didn't have inside plumbing until I was probably 8th grade.
After we 10 kids were grown and gone, she started babysitting for other people and over the years we counted dozens and dozens of different kids she took care of. She especially loved getting the tiny babies. "Grandma Roxie" was loved by every one of them and she loved them back.
This will be the second Mothers Day without her as she passed away in 2006. I miss her. We all miss her. She was truly a blessing to many, many lives. Thanks, Mom.

Our puppies

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WHAT THE FRACK?.......

My hubby, Roger, is sick with respiratory stuff again. He's been sick off and on since December. Went all the way to pneumonia in early January. He thought he was over it and got it again. Got shots twice from the doctor and finally got rid of it. Now...he has it again. So, off to the doctor to get another shot and another prescription this morning. There was a surprising aspect to the doctor's diagnosis this morning. Based on questions he's been asking his patients who have come in for respiratory problems for the last several months, he's getting 100% "yes" answers when he asks them if they live within a mile or so of a natural gas well! We live on the Barnett Shale and there is natural gas in there that is very, very abundant. Everywhere we look, there are gas wells going up, coming down, going back up. They are noisy, ugly, and now, apparently, bad for our health. The "fracking" of the wells that is done when they are drilling deep into the ground is one of the things that apparently allows all kinds of possible toxic pollution into our air and water and ground. This can cause respiratory problems, including an increase in asthma, and all sorts of other health problems. And in doing some research on this......the EPA puts no environmental controls on oil and gas exploration and production. Can you believe that? If you want to read a very interesting report on this, go to www.nrdc.org/policy and look for the Drilling Down report. In the meantime, we will have to deal with all of this, plus all of the big semi-trucks tearing up our roads and giving us ample opportunity to ruin tires in the foot-deep chuckholes they make and creating more dust for us to breathe in, not to mention practically forcing us off the road every time we meet one while driving. Aw.....progress! Just "sick" of it!!!

Three Ringy-Dingy.....

Okay, so I hit the publish post button too soon after Two Ringy-Dingy. I'm new at this, can you tell?
I've worked for this company for 21 years and the largest amount of my time has been spent answering phones. I have been hung up on more times than I can count when I tell the caller the person they want to speak with is not in. I have been cussed at and cussed out. I've had crank callers who really think it's fun to play with the name of this company which could be pronounced exactly as the F-bomb word. On the good side of the coin, I received a customer service call from someone I knew growing up in a small town in Nebraska. That was way cool! But...the calls that really annoy me are the cold calls coming in to the executives that go way beyond the pale. For example, yesterday a cold call came in for our CFO who is out of the office until June 1st. Instead of just saying they would contact him later, the person on the other end of the phone says, "oh, that's a long time to be out of the office". So, now you know they are wanting to know why he's out of the office for that long, etc. After about 5 seconds of total silence from me, I asked if there was anything else I could do for them and the person gave an embarassed little chuckle and said "no" and immediately hung up. Fact is, the CFO had major surgery yesterday morning. If the call had come from someone we do business with and have known for awhile, I MIGHT have told them, but a perfect stranger....I don't think so. I get this all the time. Our President is out of the office for an indefinite amount of time as he is running our factory in another state at present. When I tell callers he is out indefinitely, I get questions like "is he ill?", "oh, he's no longer with the company?", "boy, it must be nice to take that long of a vacation". They make assumptions that are not necessary, and they get no answer from me. If I want them to know, I'll tell them outright. In the meantime, take my answer for what it's worth and call again some other time. Four Ringy-Dingy.......

One Ringy-Dingy..Two Ringy-Dingy.......

"THOSE" E-MAILS

You know the ones.....the dreaded "forwards"! Now, I will admit that I have sent these out myself. And I have enjoyed getting some of the ones I've been getting. I do like a lot of them. But then there are those "let's make this person feel so guilty about not forwarding this e-mail that she will do it to save herself from the throes of......well, whatever". That's just not right! First of all, I'm a mother....I have all the guilt I can bear, thank you very much! 45 years of guilt is a lot to carry around without adding more. So, forgive me...I'm not forwarding those e-mails. Nope, not doin' it! And, more often than not, I'm not reading very many of them anymore, either. I've seen most of them. The black "X" at the top of the screen is almost worn out from deleting the 10th copy of the same e-mail I got 4 years ago that said if I didn't foward it, I would surely be the scourge of all mankind. What I really enjoy the most are e-mails that tell me about what's going on in the lives of the people who send them. If they have time to send me a "forward", they have time to type "we are fine, hope you are, too". That's all I need to hear if they don't have time to say more. At least, I then know they are still on the planet and haven't been abducted by aliens or locked in the basement forced to watch old Game Show reruns. On second thought, the reruns probably are more appealing than some of the "guilt-laden" e-mails. On third thought, how do I know the aliens aren't the ones pretending to be someone I know and sending out the e-mails?

GIRLFRIENDS

Girlfriends are one of the treasures of life. We make friends all the time throughout the years. Not all of them become "girlfriends", but some do and it is comforting to know they are there for you even if you don't see them very often. Remember all the girlfriends you had in high school and how after you graduated, everyone went their own way and some you never heard from again? We thought we would be friends like that forever, but then the realization hits you that you haven't heard from them for a long time, and, gee, what kind of friendship is that? It's happened to all of us. My family moved away from the town in Kansas where I grew up when I was in the middle of my Junior year in high school. I had to leave my girlfriends there and never bonded with anyone the way I had with them when I went to my new school. Over the years after high school, I saw my Kansas girlfriends a handful of times, but it wasn't until the last 8 years or so that we have all connected again and I see them at least once a year. There are 3 of them and two of them live within a few miles of each other so we take turns staying overnight with those two. You know the best thing about staying the night with old friends? You can get up and go to breakfast without combing your hair or putting your makeup on. They don't care....they're just glad to see you. And another thing, their husbands all like you and the girls like your husband. We all married good and altho the guys probably would never admit it out loud, THEY married good, too. On a recent trip, all 4 couples were sitting around talking and the conversation got around to all our health problems, medications, etc. One of the girls mentioned that someone said years ago that we would never sit around and talk about those things like our parents did. Yet, there we were...doing just that. Maybe friendships should adopt the HIPA regulation system that says we can't let others know what's wrong with us or what we're taking for it. Naw!!! That's what friends are for, to see you through your miseries and give you courage and comfort and, yes, sympathy for what you're going through. I can talk to my girlfriends about anything and vice-versa. And we all know, what we say won't go any further than that friend's ear. That's my girlfriends and I cherish all of them. Thanks for your friendship and love, Suzi, Rosalee and Rosemarie. You are truly treasures to me.

First Post

Well, this is my first post as a blogger. What to talk about.....hmmmm? How about lightning? How can something so beautiful be so scary and sometimes deadly. We had a big, bad storm at our house last night. Winds of 70 mph and lots of rain. The thunder and lightning was awesome! Until.....a bolt of lightning struck about 2 feet or less from our house. Son, Tony, came running out of his room like he'd been shot out of a rocket and husband, Roger, and I were thinking the same thing....what the heck was that?!! No damage, but that was just too close for comfort.