Lightning dancing to frightful thunderclaps caught hapless motorists by surprise about our hometown, as unstable weather continues to wear us down.

Those nursing the last harvest out of crops appreciated the rain, among them Joe Cox, who we visited at the Runnion addition-that cove of residences off Knoxville Highway adjacent to the former Gray O'Neil farm. You recall that he grew a sunflower almost 11-feet tall. Not being a sunflower expert except buying hundreds of pounds of seed for freeloading birds, Joe told me what little he knew. For instance, the record height is a Netherlands monster almost 26-feet tall, which easily beats the local corn by a few ears. Joe hauls in river sand and attends to the gardening himself but might get some digging help from their three schnauzers who checked me out closely. I hope to return to the area and learn more. You know some of his neighbors, Wade Pruitt and perhaps the late Lee Brown, and Dwight Bundy.

There are others with tales of towering tomatoes or bean vines. James Taylor, of Blue Mill, walked into my office to show some photos of his tomatoes. These must have been at least 12-feet tall against his house. He and his wife, Donella, just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. I will be visiting to learn more about them. He is the son of Dallas Taylor and Alvertie Grigsby Taylor and turned 88 on May 20. He is still active, driving, retired out of Jacksonville and a fellow with a few tales to tell. So keep listening here. I also called Lillian Cureton, who lives off Ninth Street, because she has a giant tomato plant that has produced more than 40 huge tomatoes this season. More about her and the plant next week.

During the Tuesday Kiwanis Club meeting last week, First Baptist pastor Rich Lloyd made an announcement about a friend of the club, and I was started to hear the news. The late brothers Charles S. and Jim Runnion were extraordinary club members. Jim's daughter, Cindy, who is a teacher at Edgemont School, became ill unexpectedly last Sunday. Her aunt, Beth Runnion, told me on Wednesday that Cindy was transferred from Baptist Hospital to Mercy Health Partners (St Mary's) in Knoxville where she is on a ventilator. Her condition is so serious that her sister, Vicky, of Louisville, arrived to be with her. I don't know what is causing her breathing problem but hope she is out and about soon. Beth said that Cindy suffered a fall last year that broke her hip and kept her out of school for several months.

Speaking of hips and injuries, I also bumped into Dr. Patti Ketterman at a recent Kiwanis Club meeting. She was there with other Mercy Health Partners executives to talk about the improvements going on at Baptist Hospital. In case you haven't heard, there's about a $1.4 million room improvement project in the works. You will be reading more about this in the Plain Talk. Patti is getting about better after hip replacement surgery, her second one in about a year, and she also updated me on husband, Keith Ketterman. So I called the National Bank of Tennessee president to see how he is doing after an injury. About July 11, Keith was at his home not far from Mountain Ranch Road where he was doing some lifting and injured his back. The injury got worse to his lower back. Keith said it has been extremely painful forcing him to stay at home and receive injections in his spine. Those who suffer low back pain and injury can appreciate what he is enduring. Our feature writer and former staff reporter Steve Blanchett had similar back injury and underwent major surgery several weeks ago. Thanks to great hospitals like Mercy Health Partners folks get relief and lots of compassionate care.

Did you get caught in any of the deluges last week? The biggest had to be about 3 p.m. on Monday about Del Rio. I happened to be traveling on Highway 25/50 when the storm struck and rain fell so heavily I couldn't' see the Slab Café. It was time to pull off the road with other motorists. Driving across the old green steel bridge and looking up at the new concrete one, there was a series of waterfalls caused by the rain. Then, Tuesday's storm was more in the Newport, Cosby, Edwina areas about the same time. I had been visiting James and Carolyn Fralix, who have resided many years off Hwy. 73 less than a half-mile from I-40. I am curious about the new rock quarry opened by the Hommels and will be talking with Junior Hommel about this. You recall last year I visited the rock and stone operation off Knoxville Hwy. in Newport and chatted with scale and equipment operator John Keller. If you've traveled along Hwy. 25E perhaps you've noticed that Ronnie Hommel is rebuilding after a devastating fire months ago. A larger steel structure is being erected. More rain fell through the morning hours on Thursday.

Apparently the purple and pink crepe myrtles about town and county are thriving in this hot, humid weather-kings of late summer color outdone only by kudzu. I also bumped into Sherman Hudson of Petals Florist and nursery, one morning at Waffle House where we complained about everything going on in the world. You may have seen him driving about delivering plants and shrubs in his blue 1986 Chevy truck, which has a tall camper top. Sherman has put more than a million miles on it after buying it from a fellow who owned it as a new truck for a few years. You will also see the business as one of our newest on Cockecountymarketplace.com along with a new barbecue restaurant called Cowboy's that is just across the Cosby Highway from the high school. I haven't visited yet to sample the ribs but soon will and let you know who the cook is.