Thunder storms and teapot tempests

We had incredible thunder storms last night. Twice I was forced to leave the computer and find other things to do. The lights kept flickering, but we never actually lost power, and the water poured onto the windows and skylights in sheets. It calmed down enough so that I could barbecue our supper on the deck under the roof; prior to that the rain was whipping right up to the back door. I chose to barbecue just in case we lost electricity, but then I remembered we had corn in the fridge, so I ended up cooking that on the stove. Once the ground dries out a little I�ll get out there and cut the rest of the basil. I noticed that it is trying to flower in earnest now.

As I may have mentioned a while back, Little Princess was away for the weekend. We received a call from her on Saturday, informing us that she had in fact slept in her friend�s brother�s car in the fairgrounds� parking lot on Friday night, but had subsequently moved to her boyfriend�s house near the Can/USA border and was sick: sore throat, congestion, etc. Hubby offered to drive out there and pick her up, but she declined saying that she would be getting a lift into town the next day. It was not to be. She called yesterday to say that the ride had fallen through, but she and her BF would get a lift into town with a neighbour so that she could attend her 8:30 class and, since she still had her knapsack with her school books from Friday with her, she had all she needed for the first two classes and would phone home to get her books for the next one.

I am not amused, nor am I in the least way pleased or even mildly titilated. Hubby fears that the BF is influencing her adversely with his slothful and unambitious ways. I�m not worried about her being influenced, since she has always gone her own way, but I am worried that spending so much time with her slothful and unambitious BF is cutting into her own school and study time. She is extremely conscientious about her school work, never cuts classes and knows that she wants to be a research scientist and find the answers to the big questions concerning the cosmos. But because she is also �in love�, she has to juggle her time between these two passions, and the amount of sleep she ends up getting suffers. Hence, she goes to the fair, sleeps in a friend�s car and gets sick. Then she spends the weekend far from home, relies on a lift that never happens, and we her parents are totally pissed, but powerless. We have told her that since she is now an adult, we cannot restrict her activities, but we have to know where she is, and so far she has respected that. We fear that if we start coming down on her and berating her for her shortsighted behaviour, we will alienate her and then we�ll lose even that bit of respect. What to do? Just hope that this passes quickly and that there are no permanent scars, I guess.

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from time2:

Oh the "joys"! I guess I have that to look forward to....I'm thinking shackles will work well. What do you mean thats not nice?

from ladybug-red:

It can be so difficult to be a parent. I constantly struggle to find a balance where I can be concernced and share advice without coming across as judgemental and risk alienation. I never know if I am doing quite the right thing. I am sure she will be fine - it sounds like she has had a great upbringing!

from coldandgray :

I love a good storm, too bad they are so rare in Seattle. It sounds like you are doing exactly the right thing by your daughter. Keep taking deep breaths.

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