June 2008 Archives

I pledged to grow a garden this year. My kids and I started some seedlings and they were doing really well . . . for a while. Then we moved. With no window to get direct sunlight and warm the soil, they kind of died went to a better place. So we decided to till up an area and start over.

Many of the seeds didn't grow into plants, but I'm pretty satisfied with the one's that did and have already planned my strategy for next year.

One of my tomato plants is already starting to bud. We didn't go out and buy seedlings. We started with seeds for our tomatoes. As far as I'm concerned, it's an accomplishment.



So far we have some carrot, onion, tomato, lettuce and corn plants, and a green pepper and watermelon plant. The green pepper plant is the sole survivor of some seedling transplants that I thought had a chance.

The corn is doing very well
 

My son found this guy next to our front porch over the weekend. I've told you before about the creek running near our house. Evidently, this one decided he'd had enough of the creek and wanted to move in. We sent him back home, however.

I know he's pretty odd looking. He's a soft shell turtle.

What seemed like a perfectly normal evening turned sour pretty fast. I've been battling with them for the past few months since they can't seem to get the details of our family plan quite right. I'm not going to get into the details here, but it's sufficient to state that they keep forgetting that we have a bulk text message plan but they consistently forget. It's time to go into the Verizon store and have a talk with them again.

Anyway I get home and open the bill. As you might expect, it's not right. It's raining outside - kinda hard, but the Jeep's in the garage. I decide that I may as well take the family out to supper and just make a short evening of it. We're headed down the road ( about a mile or so from home ) and the sound of the rain on the top ( it's a soft-top ) of the Jeep is just drowning everything out. My son, however, hears something on the radio . . .

"Dad, turn up the radio!"

So I turn up the radio. It's an interruption by your friendly neighborhood National Weather Service.

"This is an announcement from the National Weather Service. A TORNADO WARNING has been issued for residents of the following counties . . . "

My wife rolls down her window a bit and sure enough, the tornado sirens are blaring. The sound of the rain on the roof of the Jeep had blocked it out.

Needless to say, I wouldn't bee telling you this story if we weren't involved. And yes, the county in which we live ( Shawnee ) was included. As a matter of fact, the location of the tornado was ( on radar anyway ) about 20 minutes from us.

So my wife starts going ballistic. She wants me to turn around and go home - right there in the middle of the street in the pounding rain. Just turn around and go home. Well, I'm not having any of that. Uh-uh. Right down the block is Ace Hardware. So I pull in there and decide to sit it out. They tell us that we can all fit in the women's bathroom. I hang around out front and listen to the weather radio while the kids and the wife go into the restroom.

Fast forward about 20 or 30 minutes. Most of the bad weather has headed south and east of us and there's a break in the rain. I decide that the time's right to make a break for home. I can go to Verizon another day.

We're about 4 blocks from the house and the tornado sirens start going off again. I'm coming up to a stoplight and, as expected, I stop. My wife starts going all ballistic on me again.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? There's a tornado coming and you stop for a red light?" she screams at me.
"What? It's not like there's impending danger here. For all we know if ( in fact ) there is one it could be 10 miles away from us. The other night there was one clear up in northern Shawnee county at about 1 in the morning. Does that make it ok for everyone to start running red lights at the souther edge of Shawnee county?"

There's no winning that argument - so I don't bother to even pursue it. Regardless, as evidence I submit the fact that I am safe and sound writing this post. The fact that I stopped for a red light at an intersection during a tornado warning did not in any way affect the health of my family.

I even managed to take a couple shots of some nice mamata clouds after most of the heavy stuff had moved through.

I encourage you to visit The Delicious Life where Sarah. J Gim is giving away cookbooks like there's no tomorrow.

For me this is an excellent way to break the routines of the regular stuff that we seem to prepare over and over again. Like my son would say, "Spaghetti again?"

I found a great recipe at her site and have had her blog a permanent fixture in my feed reader since.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich is introducing legislation to impeach George W Bush.

There are something like 35 articles and he is on article 27. Yeah, I missed the beginning, but I'm glad I came across this.

Signing statements, voter fraud and civil rights violation is what I've caught so far.

I haven't gone out this weekend so I can't verify that it's the case here in KS. But I read a news report that the price of a gas has hit a national average of $4 a gallon. I did see one station that was at $3.92 a gallon on the way home Friday.

I read about some of the issues that drove the latest spike and on my way home Friday I filled up with $3.78 a gallon gas. I only needed 8 gallons, but even that added up.

But after reading the news that $4 was now the national average, I started wondering what my breaking point would be. Since I have a 20 gallon tank if I have to fill my whole tank I'll be looking at a minimum of $80 a fillup.

I've been thinking about riding my bike to work. It's not the easiest decision for me, however. I've no access to a shower once I arrive which means I'd definitely have to wash up in the sink once I get to work. It's a six mile journey to work via the path I've identified using Google maps. I'm fortunate that I can use a bike path the majority of the trip. I'll also have to carry a change of clothes, lunch, etc . . . Biking to work is only going to be a realistic solution until school starts. At that point I'll have to start taking my son to his bus stop and the weather will also be starting to change leaving the months of October through May rainy or very cold. Not your ideal biking weather.

I'm not totally sure what my price will be, but I admit that it is closing in. So, I'd like to hear what your breaking point will be. What price will it take before the increase in the price of gas changes your life?

There's nothing like watching the weather for hours on end. It appears as that will be the case tonight.

Apparently:

The National Weather Service is giving advance warning of a possible tornado outbreak in the Great Plains on Thursday with conditions similar to a deadly day in 1974 when 39 tornadoes touched down.

Our office manager sent us the news story yesterday. Today it's pretty much playing out in my neck of the woods - or at least to the west of us right now. Evidently we're going to our heapin' helpin' of it later on this evening.

Just for the fun of it here's a picture of the tornado that hit Kearney, NE. Somebody was in the perfect spot to get a really great picture.