I saw a woman working at the Driver's License office get a phone call and then double over in pain and sob. A patrolman led her out to a back office where she cried some more. The fifty people or so there just fell silent as we all realized that something really bad must have happened to her. The news (whatever it was) was bad. When I was leaving I saw her smoking a cigarette out back, and I walked up to her. She defensively said, "Don't ask me any questions." I didn't. I just gave her a hug, and she cried some more. Bless her heart. There's a lot of pain out there in the world.

I visited a beautiful baby who is almost seven months old and has already been on TV in the "Forensic Files" on Court TV. She is very much ready for her closeup, and I have no doubt that she will be a movie star and have her own band too! I'm rooting for her. She has charisma. When she's a few months older I'll get her autograph.

My duck does not look well. We need rain here badly. Our pond is getting low, and there is so much mud. Oranse Lamont just sat and hung his head and didn't come up for food. I'm worried about him. We need rain. We need a rain dance.

I went to the gym today and worked out for an hour. I always feel better when I do. Then I drank water all afternoon and ate blueberries and fresh broccoli. I wish I could do this every day, but things come up.

Our campus is full of high school cheerleaders. EVERYWHERE! And they are so peppy. They all have tans and ponytails and shout and prance everywhere. In a group these girls can make some noise. I'll bet a group of cheerleaders (they were all in the gym where I work out) shouting different cheers at once could send some kind of sonics into orbit that would disrupt a meteorite's path and waken Elvis from wherever he's hiding out. It's that LOUD! I thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to be that excited about something?!" They couldn't sing in tune though, but they were cute and someone somewhere will be cheered on by them come hell or high water.

Alabama really looks different from Mississippi. I went there this past weekend - to Monroeville where the "To Kill a Mockingbird" courthouse is. It's Harper Lee's hometown. Hollywood didn't film there but made an exact replica of their courthouse on a set. The real courthouse in the square is now a museum dedicated to the book and film." Every time I go there it is on a weekend when the museum is closed. One day, I'll get to go inside. I visited my stepmom's grave and went to Vanity Fair's outlet mall. Ate some catfish too. Alabama has hills and woods right up to the sides of the highway and big rivers with tall narrow bridges across them. It's very beautiful with the occasional hundred-year-old but well-kept farmhouse with crops in the field and lots of horses and cows. Not as many pine trees. Lots of red dirt.

And I read where someone thought the words to "Lucille" were:

You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille
With four hundred children and a crop in the field

Ha!