So where was I?

Let's see... when last I checked in... it was Friday and life was calm and beautiful and the whole world was in front of me.  I took a little Saturday night getaway with my sister in law and got away to Oklahoma.  To a casino.  To gamble.  And to see Kenny Rogers and the Gatlin Brothers in concert.  Yep, the whole world was ahead of me.

Then the lights went out.  Literally.

Lightning struck the casino while my sister in law and I were eating dinner before the show.  The lights flickered and then dimmed and then blew out.  They came back on a few moments later, but not before they blew out more than half of the slot machines on the casino floor.  I had not been playing yet, so I had nothing to lose, but there were many, many sad people out there.  People who'd had money in those machines.  People who were on winning streaks.  People who could not leave their machines until help arrived... to give them their money.  People who couldn't go into the concert hall because help had not arrived.

But honestly, you would not have wanted to be in there anyway.  Oh, the show was fine, it wasn't that.  But the a/c blew out with the lightning strike.  It was... and I am very close to telling the truth here... 150 degrees in there.  Pretty close anyway.  And, sadly enough, it was cooler inside the hall than out. 

I did gamble some, though.  On one of a very few functioning machines after the show.  And my winnings were big, big, big!  Remind me to show you my winning ticket. 

But everything I just told you here?  Repeated itself the next day.  Well, not literally.  Figuratively.

Sunday night, after an afternoon at a drama rehearsal, I returned home to find my world going dark, too.  Rick was not feeling well.  I was pretty sure it was the BBQ dinner I had brought home to him, but I hadn't felt ill after mine. 

Monday morning came and went.  Rick had been up all night using the restroom... and cursing the BBQ ribs that I'd fed him on Sunday.  Oops, was that TMI?  Sorry.

I checked on Rick during the day and he seemed to be recovering so I didn't panic.  He hadn't had a fever when I'd left, either.  Fevers do him in.  But no fever, so I headed to work.  Around 3:00, his home health nurse called and asked how he was.  I decided she should check in on him since I hadn't been able to stay home.  She did and she told me to get home.

Oops, again.

And Monday night was most unique in the Kahle household.  Lightning might as well have struck our house because my lights definitely got punched out.

It all began when Nurse Susan said, "