chelsea cookWellsir, it seems that time passes faster than one is ready for time to pass. I have already started letting my beard grow for December when I do the Santa bit but it seems as though we should be doing spring things.
Of course, if you believe certain people (who shall remain unnamed) it could be because most of the “work” that I thought I would do is not completely finished yet. But, in my defense, I had several other very important things to do first. Maybe even some important things to do second. And, after all, we can’t rush into these things as old people are prone toward heart attacks. Being very respectful, I can not see why a person should have a heart attack just because another person likes bees more than... wellsir, most every other thing.
But you got me off the topic again. Suddenly we are having fall weather. I think I warned you of this last week. One day was a very hot, muggy day full of insects and other flying things and then - whamo - fall. Not autumn but fall. My poor trees do not know what to make of this as they were still attempting to be trees and now they don’t know whether or not to drop their leaves or start to bloom. Summer could return to Oklahoma without any warning.
Often I am reminded of when I was a school instrumental music teacher and had to get out early every morning and try to get 50 - 85+ kids (depending on the year) to perform a concert whilst stomping up and down a well manicured pasture and they had to stay in rhythm and formation. There were some years when i allowed and encouraged the kids to take off their uniform coats while we sat in the stands on very hot Friday nights as it was way too hot to wear a wool coat.
To explain, not wearing full uniform was against all rules of our band and that rule went back for decades. One year was extra ordinarily hot but before football season was over we marched in below freezing weather. I told the school principal the next Monday morning that he could fire me this day as I would never abuse any students to that again. He was at the game in full overcoat, gloves, hat and probably a little more to keep warm.
But those days are over and I can look back at them fondly. I could, but I don’t. I think it is silly to expose young kids to that type of weather conditions just to entertain people who can’t tell a B-flat from a buzz saw.
Oklahoma has some of the most extreme weather that a continent can have. Oklahoma is located just north of the Gulf of Mexico so that very humid wind approaches from the south at speeds from blustery to "batten down the hatches." We are just west of the Rocky Mountains, using the continent as a distance guide, and we get left over patterns from there, which when mixed with the Gulf weather causes tornadoes.
Of course, we get the left over Arctic blasts from Canada because there is nothing to slow down those gales as the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas have no particular geographical feature to slow down any wind, let alone a monsoon made of ice. In Nebraska they do not even put on a coat until about below zero. “Oh look, Ma, the river is frozen solid so I guess I can’t wear flip-flops today. Dern, and I wanted to go work cattle after plowing. Oh, well”
But I like weather, I know it doesn’t sound as if I did, but I do. We lived in Southern California one year and each day was, “Oh look, we are having another sunny, warm day. That makes 399 in a row.” One of the good things about that was we lived in an apartment complex which had a swimming pool. Our child learned to swim probably before he could walk. I did appreciate having that feature connected to the constant weather, but then we moved back to Tornado Alley and made friends with people who had a storm cellar.
Here we are getting ready for winter and whatever the storm gods can throw at us whilst my Aussie friends are preparing for summer. My S-I-L is busy planting a garden, encouraging flowers and native plants and waiting for sunny days. (Oh, BTW, her garden is full of bees. Lucky gal!) It would appear that someone somewhere will have nice weather while you may either freeze or melt. Hopefully, you are not like those in California who are in danger of massive fires caused by too dry conditions. But here in Oklahoma we use a saying by, I think, Will Rogers: “ If you don’t like the weather, wait 15 minutes and it will change.”