Heat, Cold, & Misc.

Have you ever noticed how good it makes you feel to do something good for someone? I'm sure you have – but like me, you may need to be reminded of that occasionally. I was in a position to do something to help out a good friend today. It took very little time and effort on my part, but due to her current physical condition I was able to be a big help to her. I'm so glad I had the time to help her out. It energized me for the rest of the day!

It's still hot and dry here. My cousin, who lives seven miles north, got a nice shower of .2” rain last night. We didn't get a drop. I watered everything today, but we're at that point the sun is beating down so hard it's burning up the plants. Watering the soil isn't doing a lot of good.

The weather forecast is on TV right now – I see that we're categorized as “moderately dry” currently, but Western Kansas is categorized as “severe to exceptional drought”. I have cousins in Southwest Kansas, and they've told me for a couple of years how dry it's been. In fact, the cousin who's my age and is a wheat farmer recently walked away from an amazing wreck, due in part to the weather. I've talked about the Kansas wind – as his sister said when she emailed me photos, as much as they complain about the wind it does keep the air stirred up so they have visibility. Toward the end of wheat harvest, my cousin was heading in with a load of wheat – there was no wind, and dust was hanging in the air to the point he didn't see a semi ahead of him slow and signal for a turn. He saw the semi just in time to veer left – it took two tow trucks to pull the two trucks apart. It he hadn't seen the semi in time to veer, we would be telling a very different story. It still amazes me that he walked away.

The weatherman now says we have the possibility of 2-3” rain in the next week......I think I'd believe him more if it was an 80-90% chance rather than 30%! I've lived in the Midwest too long to get wound up over 30%.

It's amazing how the different parts of the country are – well – different. When I lived in northern Oregon, houses didn't have basements due to the high water table. Most of the homes I lived in out there didn't have window screens – I told my folks that really all we had were mosquitoes, and they were big enough to open the front door and walk in! That really took some getting used to. There was no air conditioning because it didn't get hot enough for that.

Kansas, Iowa (both places), and eastern Indiana weren't as different. In fact, when we were in eastern Indiana I realized we were on the same weather “line” as here – so if I was wondering about our weather, I would check in with Mom to see what we could look for a couple of days down the road.

When my kids were in school, I found myself reminding them that there was no such thing as “early out” from school because the temps were too high when I was in school. We just pushed the windows to the top and dealt with it. It was nice when there was a class in one of the two basement rooms in our school. Now, it's not unusual for schools to dismiss early when it's hot.

It seems, too, like there are more snow days than when I was in school. Maybe I just notice it more. It's certainly advertised more than it was in the “olden days”! We listened for the breaks on the radio to find out if school was closed – but we still had to scramble to get ready for the bus “just in case”.

Now, when snow days are called, the teachers are contacted by text or email and even our small school here will have its school closure on the Kansas City TV stations. With the radio stations having active websites, you don't have to wait for a newscast or for the School Closings list to scroll across the TV screen......just hop on the trusty internet and check it out. Really, it's so much more efficient than my school days when I was often up, dressed, and ready to go out the door to catch the bus before we would get word that school was closed.

I must be hot – I certainly did a smooth transition from being to hot to talking about snow closings! Happy Thursday!