Whether weather

I spent the last week in New Mexico, attending my cousin's wedding and visiting my brother Gage.  My dad flew there from here.  After he retired from farming, he took flight lessons, bought a plane, and flies around the country.

He and my brother had a very eventful flight from one city to another in New Mexico.  There were thunderstorms, dust storms, and huge gusts of wind out of nowhere. 

They were telling us about it, and my dad said it was sort of fun.  He said that flying with obstacles -going around the storms and trying to avoid the wind - made it interesting.

Gage said, "Isn't that funny, dad?  You went from a job that depends on the weather ... to a hobby that depends on the weather."

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We tried magic milk flavoring straws that I blogged about earlier.  My niece, sons, and I thought they were great.  They're straws that have filters on either end and are filled with chocolate powdery-crystals that dissolve as you drink.  So by the time the milk is in your mouth, it tastes like chocolate.  It's such a great idea. 

When things are better than good, I often say, "That's awfully good."  My son apparently wanted to express just HOW much he liked it, but didn't get it quite right. 

To give you an idea of just how great it tasted, my son said, "It's horribly, awfully good."

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It has been dry, dry, dry and hot, hot, hot.  No rain and in the 90s for over a week.  The cows don't like it, the corn is all withery-looking, and the irrigation system runs all the time on the pastures. 

Last night, out of nowhere, we had a storm.  At 3:00 a.m. - lightning!  Thunder!  Wind!  The power went out and Kris left the house (before it came back on) to go and start the generator in order to be able to milk.  So we didn't need to use it.  Later in the day, our employee had to borrow it to milk his cows, because his power wasn't back on yet! 

This also happened last night:

     

If you're having trouble identifying what you're seeing, try and spot ...

- a patio chair
- an umbrella (CLOSED, but didn't seem to matter)
- a table that was seemingly pushed six feet by the wind
- glass shards that used to be the tabletop covering the cement and pool bottom
- a mouse using a diaper as a lifeboat - after all it'd been through, I saved it.  It'd had a rough night, obviously.  (My brother suggested that it actually pushed the table in.  I wished I'd have thought of that before I let it run off.)

But!  The good news is that it rained.  We got 3/4 of an inch.  Forget rain dancing - I guess the sacrificial glass table is what works.