We were jolted awake just after midnight by the tornado horn. The rain had been slashing furiously for hours, the wind howling — and the temperature, which had been in the low 50s all day, rose to around 70 during the evening. This morning Pam assured us the Mission House was the safest place to be (since we would have had to go outside to get to the basement anyway).

The morning dawned bright and beautiful. Before heading to the worksite we heard from Dionne and Kevin, who work on transitional housing. BBM has a prototype tiny bedroom on wheels that would provide a first step for a person who has been living outside for years. The next phase would be an actual tiny house, then one of the duplexes the mission has built over the past several years.

Then it was back to Diane’s house to wrap up her flooring and painting project and put all her furniture back where it belongs.

In the afternoon the crew installed some windows in one of our other projects; they will be there for the balance of the week and also working on the house next door. These projects — siding and roofing primarily — will be weather-dependent, and more rain is on the way.

Ginny, Lorie, Ally and Lori helped out at the Micah Day Center and Loaves and Fishes, which has a new home (you may recall they were serving lunch from the BBM parking lot last year).

Meanwhile, I continued on kitchen duty, making and delivering lunches, grocery shopping (that needs to be done almost daily) and making tonight’s dinner. After polishing off our carrot cupcakes, everyone settled into their post-prandial activity of choice: reading, crosswords, a new jigsaw puzzle, RummiKub and cards.

Hump day tomorrow!