A Wet 'n Wild Weekend

Yes, it was a wet 'n wild holiday weekend - and not in a fun way! The Midwest, now that we've finally reached seasonable weather, has faced several days of attention-getting weather.

Here in North Central Missouri, our stormy weather started on Sunday afternoon. We had a couple of strong fronts go through and dump over an inch of rain on us, then the sun came back out and it got steamy. In the evening and overnight, more stormy weather. Yesterday morning about 8:45, it got as black as night as another front rolled through. It rained quite a bit of the day.......then more rumbles and rain overnight. We've been fortunate that there hasn't been much wind with these storms - I haven't heard of any downed trees or other wind damage, and we never lost power. But the thunder and lightning has been disruptive and the rain has poured - by the time we emptied the rain gauge this morning, we'd measured 5.3". It's showered a couple of times this afternoon, and we're about to let a tornado watch expire......looks like more coming through tonight.

Last year was dry here, so the moisture is welcome. But I'm at the point I'd be glad to share. A cousin from central Kansas was here over the weekend; he said it's still very dry there. And the cousin in far western Kansas says they've had hardly any measurable rain for over two years now. From our town to the south are the Missouri River Bottoms - amazing farm ground, but totally flat topographically. We've had enough moisture now that those heavy rains yesterday were just sitting on top of the ground - it's getting pretty saturated. That could be the beginning of a less-than-stellar crop year. We'll start hoping for a break from the rain before long.

In a nod to the Memorial Day Weekend, a very touching email was forwarded to me this morning. My husband's father did not survive World War II and is buried in the American Military Cemetery in Manila. Through a strange set of events a few years ago, hubby's uncle (who lives in a Dallas suburb) met a gentleman who lives in Manila. They chatted at a local Rotary Club meeting in the Dallas area - the gentleman from Manila has a very dear friend who is buried in Dallas, and he was in Dallas for the funeral. Before the Rotary Meeting was over, hubby's uncle and the gentleman from Manila made an agreement that every year on Memorial Day, hubby's uncle would put flowers on the friend's grave in Dallas, and the gentleman from Manila would put flowers at the American Military Cemetery. Since then, he has faithfully done that every year - in fact, he goes above and beyond by attending the entire official military ceremony, putting a wreath on the grave, and taking photos of everything. He uploads the photos into an album and emails them to both hubby and his uncle so they can have a small part of the annual ceremony. Hopefully he knows how much his gesture of kindness means to the family of this man who never got to come home from the war.