No longer exceptional, just extreme

According to droughtmonitor.unl.edu my place and most of Montgomery County are finally experiencing an extreme drought after eight weeks of exceptional drought status. For the first time since July there is green grass in the fields. It is raining and more rain is on the way. Maybe we can get to severe drought status by Thanksgiving.

Last gasp of summer, really

The weather last week has been pleasant. You needed a jacket for morning’s and a t-shirt the rest of the day. That changes dramatically tomorrow afternoon when temperatures will drop to freezing by Friday. The long range forecast calls for highs below 50 and lows below freezing, in other words normal November weather.

We are not likely to lower our drought status tomorrow, but the spring is flowing again. It is still under a gallon a minute, but that is better than it has been for the last month.

I voted

I had to get my tire fixed, so I went to my polling place in mid day hoping the lines at the polls and the tire shop would be short. The good news is I was first in line at both places. About a dozen precincts are in the same building, each with its own board so no one should ever be in line. The bad news was the ballot was two pages long, a first for a midterm election since I moved to Kansas. The tire guys had trouble finding the leak. I got some cleaning supplies at the hardware store and still got back in just over an hour

Colliwobbles and pollyticks

If there are two organizations that can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory they are the Collingwood Football Club and the Republican Party. I got a warm fuzzy feeling watching The Final Draw video on You Tube and listening to Collingwood CEO Eddie McGuire recite every Collingwood Grand Final loss from 1958 to 2010. The Republican Party will find itself on the verge of success and still find a way to screw it up, again. The only question is will they do it before or after tomorrow’s election.

Bye-bye daylight savings time

After 16 years in Kansas following 23 years in Arizona, I just can’t understand the concept of day.ight savings time. Most of Arizona does not have daylight savings time. If you want to take advantage of the early sunrise, you simply went to work an hour earlier without bothering anyone else. The only reason the Navajo Nation uses daylight savings time is because the reservation spills over into New Mexico and Utah and they find it easier to keep the whole rez in the same time zone.

At Wally World we take lunch at 2am just as daylight savings time ends. We have to be reminded to wait until the online clocks automatically reset before we clock out for meal break.

Nice to see the old gang

About a month ago, my supervisor at my last job wanted to get some of the gang back together to talk about the good old days and find out what happened since we broke up just before the WuFlu hit.

I had always wanted to stop by the Copan Truck Stop but never had time, so I figured this was as good as time as any. I also needed to go to Bartlesville and get some shopping done. Since I actually got off work at 7am for the first time in over a week, I went to Bartlesville, shopped slowly and got back to Copan just before noon.

The food was nothing fancy, but it was good. We had a good time reminiscing about the good old days. I even ended up getting a slice of cherry pie, which I have not done in well over a decade. After the holidays we will get together on a more regular basis.

Keeping employees happy

With the economy as bad as it is, employers are trying to keep employees from leaving without spending cash on wages. Along with feeding employees occasionally and giving plaques for jobs well done, they recognize anniversaries. Because they have to deal with the trophy generation, Wally World actually recognizes one month and even one week anniversaries.

I am glad I blew through those like Michael Moore through a bag of oreos before Wally World got that idea. I would have been embarrassed to have those posted on the company’s intranet.