A Good Day

Some days are good. Today was one of them.

There were no calls last night for the four hours I was on - as it turned out, there were no calls anyway. I suppose that this is fairly standard for Independence Day. I think most people go away, and the ones remaining, while stupid enough to purchase and set off fireworks aren't quite stupid enough to burn off a hand or face. Just as well.

Around 0300, I headed to bed. As I was walking to the bedroom, a flash of bright white-blue light lit up the floor outside of my office... ooooooooo... I stopped, looked at the window of the room, waiting... sure enough, the not-so-distant rumble of thunder sounded soon after. Another moment or two of waiting and more bright lightning lit up the sky outside, outlining the trees. I went to bed and read for a bit, listening to the thunder. It was a good storm. It was not as incredible as most early-morning storms are... many of them are very fiery and loud, boiterous affairs that shake the windows and crash about the house. This was not one of those.

However, it made things even more humid than they already were. Groan.

We got up around 0900, showered and went out to breakfast at The Original Pancake House, my favourite place to eat. I had cherry kiafa French toast, a newer option for me. I loved it. I love eating there anyway, but having another choice is always good.

We headed to the Garden State Plaza for a bit of shopping. We lucked out and there is an AMC theater there, that is newer - they have the stadium seating and roomy areas, and they had a 1230 showing of "Ratatoullie", the latest Pixar offering. We got there at 1219 - perfect timing. We got our boatloads of junk - popcorn, Twizzlers and two sodas - and went into the theater. The previews were not very promising, but then Pixar had a cute short to start with and then the movie. Well! I loved it! What an adorable, happy, cheerful, delightful movie this was! I love the rat, the main characters, all of them! It was an excellent movie and I highly, highly recommend it.

After the movie, it was time to shop. I really like the tea place there, called Teavana, and I was delighted. I got a pound of loose Lady Grey tea (oddly it is called "Mrs. Grey" but it is the same bergamot tea that Twinings calls Lady Grey. It was not decaf, but loose tea is a beautiful thing. And I got a little tea pot for loose tea. These pots are really great, the strainer is very thorough. No loose tea bits floating in my cup. Very important.

That was a $72 purchase. Luis was rather surprised at how expensive this was.

We stopped at the White Barn Candle Company. I love candles - you just can't have enough candles. So I found a couple of good candles, some replacement scent things for my plugin at work and off we went to the next place, which was Borders. Ah, books... there is no way one can ever have enough books. I found a couple of books to buy, and we finally headed out to leave.

We were on North Beverwyck Road and we came to an accident involving two cars. I wanted to stop and see if anyone needed help, but Luis said we could call it in through the Onstar thing in his car. OK. I pressed the button and while the call wasn't clear, the operator could hear me and he connected us to the police. Apparently we were the first to call it in.

I went on at 1800 and we had a call just after 1900 for a man with back spasms - I know the patient. Not well, or anything, but I had his drunk friend twice - yes, the Gin guzzling 83-year-old woman. She is now in an assisted living home that is not in Parsippany, so I never have to worry about seeing her again. This guy is really sweet. He was an EMT years and years ago. So we took him up to St. Clares.

We had another call around 2120, for a male with Alzheimers and having an "episode". We were there and idling when Don got there and then we were cancelled just a moment after that. Cancelled. Well, short calls are good ones. So I came home.

Now it is 2249, and five hours of my shift are over. Who knows what the next seven hours will bring... Except for maybe a really big thunderstorm. The weather report is reading 60% chance of thunderstorms. I hope we get another one. Personally, I hope it comes through and sucks some of the unbelievable humidity with it on its journey. I doubt that this will happen, but it is nice to dream.

Time for bed...