In my opinion, the worst and most dangerous storms are the ones that come through at night. First, because most people are asleep and don’t hear the warnings so they do not take cover. But also because most homes have the bedrooms on the second floor, and when a tornado strikes a house, the roof and the second floor are the most likely to suffer extensive damage. So, if people are asleep in their bedrooms and a tornado does hit their house, they have a very high probability of not surviving that storm.

At my house, we got a lot of wind and rain that re-arranged parts of my backyard. Thankfully, we did not have a tornado come through this area. But there is a huge gully that was washed through my backyard and down the hill that didn’t used to be there. I have to get a shovel and fill in a huge hole and the canals that were created. When I say huge, I mean that an entire car could be driven into this hole. I don’t have any idea how long it is going to take to replace all that dirt, shovel by shovel.

I am heading to the grocery store to stock up on my regular groceries plus some extras for comfort food and baking cookies while we are snowbound this weekend.

The gas stations have a small convenience store and often a deli or cafe. some have tiny truck stops, which offer a shower, land line telephone, and a place to stretch out for a bit when you are too tired to keep driving. The land line phone is important because there is little or no cell phone service out there. You can drive for hours without any cell signal, even with AT&T “nationwide” service.

Several gas stations also service the farmer, who don’t have to pay some of the road taxes on gas and diesel for farm equipment. Also, farmers need other things, like antifreeze, propane, grease and hydraulic fluids. These are dispensed from pumps off to the side of the gas station at various prices per gallon, as shown in the photo, above.

Back home, we buy little rectangular white on black plastic signs from Wal-Mart or the Ace hardware store that say “POSTED” and just tack or nail them to trees along the property lines and roadsides.

But I guess the old tires are something the farmers don’t have to buy and are a fine example of recycling and resourcefulness. Besides, the closest Wal-Mart is an hour and 10 minutes away in Kingfisher, and with the price of gasoline, you can’t just run over to the Wal-Mart every time you need something. This is a small Wal-Mart – they don’t even sell gas at this one, but it is the birthplace of Sam Walton, so they had to have one, even if it’s just a small one.

Out in the country you make shopping lists and save up for one big shopping trip, maybe once a month or so. The whole family goes and makes a day trip of it.

There is no whine or anything like a motor noise. It’s very quiet and peaceful with just the whoosh whoosh and an occasional bird chirping from a bush or fence post.

I’m sure the heat isn’t so bad if you get used to it, but we are accustomed to being inside an air conditioned house or office. My sister-in-law has air conditioning, but a lot of the old farmhouses out here do not. She keeps the thermostat much higher than we do at home, and it was uncomfortably warm the entire visit. I would much rather be too hot than too cold, but I sure wish there had been a more gradual adjustment to the temperatures.

It seems there is always some wind, which is very different from back home. The wind is a good thing for a lot of reasons and one of the most unique and rewarding good things is that some companies are now harnessing that wind by erecting huge wind turbines. They look like space age windmills and are generating electricity for the power companies.

We are thrilled at how well these basic vegetables have done and I think next year we’ll go ahead and have a full garden. I have plans to put in a raised bed over in the side yard and I want to grow a bigger variety of vegetables.

The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services maintains an awesome website that has an interactive Google map of the fires. You can click on a fire icon and a text box opens with detail of that particular fire area, including current status of containment and the number of acres affected. Click here to see the current map – it is very disconcerting. As of this morning there are over 1,000 wildfires burning out of control, with weather forecasts of more storms with high winds and lightning. So things are not looking good for No Cal.

This year it is northern California, with over 1,000 fires burning today and the news shows airing clips of officials crying for helping – they don’t have enough manpower or resources to even show up at all the fires burning, most of them caused by lightning strikes over the past several days.

It’s hard to imagine that areas so close to the Pacific ocean are suffering from severe drought this early in the summer season and that dry trees and brush all over the far western states is a waiting tinderbox.

There’s no way I could ever agree to make California my state of primary residence. There are just too many natural disasters waiting to take your property and your life. It’s a nice place to visit, but I’ll never live there.

One of the fun parts of this weekend is that my girlfriend and her hubby are going camping, too, and they have a small bass boat. They’ve offered to camp close to us, depending upon what campsites are available at the lake, and take us out on the boat a few times. That would be great!

If they are going to be nice enough to take us fishing, I want to buy something nice to give them as a thank you gift. I can order something online tonight and have it delivered in time for our trip on Friday. I found a nice web site, American Marine Supply, with lots of nautical supplies and novelties. They have all kinds of boating supplies and even nautical jewelry. Since I don’t know what gear they already have, I’m trying to find something either useful, funny, or pretty.

We have a great tent, sleeping bags, cooler and plenty of fishing gear. Yesterday we stopped by Wal-Mart to see if we needed anything else to pick up and found a few things. I bought a couple flashlights and a can of bug spray. We’ll wait to buy the groceries until we get closer to the weekend and know for sure that we’re going.

So cross your fingers for us that we have a good weekend!

Like the “experts” who every year predict that this coming year will have lots of terrible hurricanes. Well, duh. Every year does have the chance that there will be terrible hurricanes, and if a hurricane happens to rip through your own neighborhood then you most likely will be calling that hurricane terrible and a few other choice names. But the fact is that not every year has terrible hurricanes, some years are worse than others.

I like flip flops. I have been wearing them since a little kid and they are my footwear of choice during the hot summer months and certainly better than going barefoot. There is not much difference between a pair of cheap flip flops and expensive designer thongs sandals other than the “design” and the price tag. I really don’t see how flip flops can be bad for my feet when I’ve been wearing them every summer for over 50 years.

If I have a full hour to spend on R&R I’ll try to find a good partner and play one or two Spades games. If I only have a few minutes I’ll play something fast, like backgammon or cribbage. Sometimes I like the cutthroat strategies of Hearts to sharpen my mind. These are not time wasters as much as they are mental exercises to keep me alert and sharpen my critical thinking skills.

I can’t do that. I’ll drive to work a different way at least 2 or 3 times each week. I really don’t like to do the same thing over and over. I like variety and I like to enjoy my drive to work – not just endure it. Every morning I see new flowers blooming, new pets in the yards, and new cars sharing the road with me. I love starting each day as a new adventure!

The earthquake in China was devastating. The reported number of people killed keeps growing, by practically hundreds by the hours. The last time I looked it was over 12,000 dead and 18,000 missing or trapped in the wreckage of schools, office buildings and apartment homes. My heart goes out to these people and I hope that the rest of the world steps up to help provide aid to these victims.

We’ve always wanted to visit Canada in the summer time, so this is our opportunity to take a vacation at Blueberry Lake, in the Mont Tremblant region of Quebec. We’ll be renting a Quebec-style log home (or what they call a chalet) for the second week of July. The chalet has 4 bedrooms, so Mother can join us for the entire week or just the weekend and have her own bedroom. When she arrives, we’ll arrange for a spa visit and a gourmet dinner, so none of us have to worry about cooking or cleaning up.

My son has been to New Orleans on business several times since Katrina and he says it is still a mess, almost nothing has been cleared away and rebuilt. Just thousands of half standing, abandoned houses for miles in every direction. They have fixed up the downtown and Garden District, but from what I had heard, the Garden District had almost no damage anyway, and the downtown was relatively easy to clean up and reopen, too. The problem is that there is no affordable housing to replace the thousands of homes that were lost, and no place for the workers to live so the businesses have trouble getting open without employees.

Haven’t had the opportunity to go back since Katrina, but if they’ve made enough progress to start having the Jazz Fest again, maybe next year I can work it into the calendar to go back and hear the fantastic music that New Orleans is famous for. I’ll be watching the news to see how this one goes, first. Or if you’ve been and think it’s safe to visit again, leave me a comment and share your story.

There is already fencing around the south and west sides of the yard, but it is a mishmash of the neighbors fencing choices. I have what I want in mind, but have been trying to find a local contractor to help me with the digging post holes and connecting the sections. I thought I would get my supplies from Home Depot, as the Sunday newspaper ads have attractive pricing on the materials. But I still have questions about this project, and when I clicked on the Home Depot link as directed in the ad circular, it goes to a dead page. I tried a second route and that’s a different dead page.  What is up with that, Home Depot? You feature something and then don’t back it up? Bah!

Our Human Resources Manager ordered a collection of all occasion cards from gallerycollection.com and had them custom imprinted, but we also pass them them around to the rest of the staff for personal notes and signatures before presenting them with a flourish or small ceremony to the recipient. The Business Birthday Cards are a nice way to help celebrate employee and client birthdays. I also like that the envelopes are a classy, deckle-edged heavy stock, and they are made of recycled paper.