Ahhhhh, Spring!

According to the weather guys, we're in for some bad weather here in southcentral Kansas over the next few days.  For once, they have it right.  Thunder is booming, lightning is flashing (the cable & tv went off), and raindrops are sliding swiftly down the window by my desk.  I checked the radar when it first started, maybe an hour ago, and the storm isn't small.  We're about halfway through it, but most of the worst is past.  Just a spring thunderstorm.

We're hoping those weather guys don't have everything right, because they're talking the likelihood of tornadoes tomorrow afternoon and evening and also on Saturday.  It's to start in the western part of the state and move eastward.  And if we're going to have this weather, so might the states to our east.  Look out Missouri and Illinois!

While Kansas has always been known for its tornadoes, thanks to The Wizard of Oz, it isn't the only state or even the region that deals with them.  The times--along with weather patterns--are changing.

A report finds that the traditional boundaries of Tornado Alley - which has centered on the Plains states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota- should be expanded to include much of the Midwest and Deep South, because the frequency and severity of tornadoes in those areas is much more widespread than commonly believed.  (from an article from USA Today about Tornado Alley, shared on WZZM in Michigan)

Tornadoes have always been a part of my life.  I've learned to respect them.  If the siren blows or a warming is issued via TV or radio, I know what to do, and I do it.  And the two reasons below are why.

When I was not quite four years old, the deadliest of the tornadoes in Kansas struck Udall, a small town in the southeast part of the state.  I heard that tornado as my mom and I were driving home to the city from the graduation of a cousin in another small town.  It's one of those things---along with bits of memories of the graduation ceremony---that I'll always remember.  The tornado went through Blackwell, Oklahoma, first, on its way into Kansas, killing 20 people there.  In Udall, a town of just over 600 people, 76 died (20 were children) and more than 200 were injured.

On April 26, 1991, another tornado ripped through my area of state.  My oldest daughter was with her fifth grade class as the annual Renaissance Fair, held at one of the local colleges. She remembers her teacher mentioning that the air felt strange that day.  By 5:15 pm, the school trip was over and students were home again.  That was when storm chasers spotted the storm with tornado near Argonia, KS that eventually cut a southwest to northeast path that deposited rain and hail at the farm where we lived, then moved on and dropped again just east of the town of Clearwater, then built as it went through Haysville, into south Wichita and McConnell AFB.  At 6:35 pm, the F5 tornado hit Andover, KS, northeast of Wichita, wiping out homes and lives in the Golden Spur Mobile Home park.  Videos (most are on YouTube) taken of the storm are mind-boggling.

Just one simple caveat.  If you've seen the movie Twister, there's a lot of made-up junk in it.  Strapping yourself to a metal pipe will more than likely find you with a pipe wrapped around your neck...if you manage to somehow survive.  Not to mention that tornadoes do not sound like a camel moan played backwards, as they used in the movie.

So I'll go dig out my weather radio, watch the radar via computer, and keep an eye on the sky, ready to go to my daughter's house, three blocks away, where there's a basement, if needed.  Or I'll simply bend over and kiss my a$$ goodbye.  Here's hoping all of you stay safe from Mother Nature's Spring Wrath. :)

Laurence: That one we encountered back there was a strong F2, possibly an F3. 

Beltzer: Maybe we'll see some 4's. 

Haynes: That would be sweet! 

Bill: 4 is good. 4 will relocate your house very efficently. 

Melissa: Is there an F5? 

[Everyone goes dead silent] 

Melissa: What would that be like? 

Jason 'Preacher' Rowe: The Finger of God.

~~ Twister (the movie) 1996

'Tis the Season...for Baseball

While I'm not particularly a baseball fan, it was a part of my life when I was young.  How many of us can there be who don't recall the crack of a bat hitting a ball?  Or the feel of the hard, flat surface of a bleacher in the hot, afternoon or early evening sun?

One of my earliest memories is of my mother, sitting in the old (and I mean old) recliner, with a clipboard in her lap as she watched the World Series on the black & white TV, while she kept a detailed running score of the game.  I don't know what teams played in those games, but I know for most of my growing up years, I was a Roger Maris fan.  Mickey Mantle was a close second.  I also remember Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays, Johnny Bench, George Brett, Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio, and Don Drysdale.  Those were the days of baseball.  Of course there were hundreds more, but those were the ones I remember best.

My mom wasn't the only one who watched baseball.  We lived not far from Lawrence Stadium, now Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, which was built in 1934 and has been the home of the National Baseball Congress World Series since 1935.  On summer nights, my dad would attend games there.  My mom would take me, usually in my pajamas and very sleepy, to pick him up when the game was over.  Across the street from the ballpark was a Dairy Queen.  Not the fancy brazier kind there are not, but one where you walked up to the window and ordered.  My mom was a banana split person, and my dad usually ordered a sundae of some kind.  My favorite was a chocolate malt...that I rarely finished and was put in the freezer for the next day.  Frozen DQ chocolate malts are great!  The DQ has been gone for years, but I'm always reminded of it when we go watch my oldest granddaughter perform in the annual ice show or we go skating at the Ice Center (upper left of the stadium in photo), built in 1996.  I've had the pleasure of attending a few games at L-D Stadium over the past 20 years and enjoyed every minute, including the beer that was accidentally dumped down my back by a zealous fan. ;)

Childhood became teen years, and we'd moved to a small town.  I became a Dodger fan.  In fact, like former manager Tommy Lasorda, I've been known to bleed Dodger Blue.  Third baseman Ron Cey was my favorite during those years, but was closely followed by Steve Garvey, Don Sutton, and others.  If I still watched baseball, that would be my team, in spite of KC Royals being only 3 1/2 hours away.  I'll root for the Texas Rangers, too, just because.

When I finally grew up and became a real adult, I went to slow pitch softball games, usually two to three games a week and several weekend tournaments, for most of 20+ years.  I learned to keep score and swore that my backside had to have been as flat as the bleachers I sat on, game after game after game.  There were lots of bleacher tans: shoulders and arms, upper chest and back, and tops of thighs and feet, not to mention my scalp if there was a part in my hair.  I made friends with the wives and girlfriends of players and enjoyed spending time with them on the bleachers.  I learned the rules of baseball and softball, not by playing, but by watching, listening and cheering on the team.  And, oh, the stories I have of those crazy times.  If I had to choose between watching softball or baseball, I'd choose softball in a heartbeat, even in spite of Maris, Koufax and Cey. ;)

So here's my salute to baseball and the boys of summer, complete with a super, upbeat tune and old-time photos that bring back those childhood memories.  Thank you, John Fogarty!

Baseball is the only place in life where a sacrifice is really appreciated.  ~ Author Unknown

PLAY BALL!!! 

Who'll Stop the Rain?

Yes, I'm a Credence Fan.  No, this is not about CCR.  This is about the rain that has been coming down since late Sunday.

Oscar Wilde once said, "Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative."  My response to that?  Oscar had his own set of problems. ;)

Normally, rain doesn't bother me.  I rarely see the need for an umbrella or raincoat or slicker of any kind.  Getting a little damp from raindrops doesn't spoil my day.

We need rain now and then to settle the Kansas dust.  And I'm sure that sometime mid-July or August, we'll be wishing it would rain.  But 4+ days of it?  Isn't that a bit of overkill?

And just why did this sudden drenching of our area have to happen during Spring Break?  It's too cold and icky to send kids out to play.  Mud brown would be the color of the day...all week.  Then there's the risk of them getting totally drenched and coming down with this season's worst bug, just in time for break to be over.  That would be punishing me, because guess whose house they'd be sent to when they're too sick to go to school?  Yeah, that's right.  If truth be told, five kids under the age of 10, cooped up in a small house for 4 days, is an invitation to bloodshed.  I'm just not sure whose blood will be shed first.

Let's face it, I wouldn't have survived the 40 days and 40 nights of the "Great Flood" of Bible lore.  After the first week, I'd have offed myself.  I probably wouldn't do well in Seattle, either, although it's on my Top 5 list of places where I'd consider living.  Still, I like a little rain, and after last summer's drought, it really would be nice to see the river at higher levels.  The wide expanse of sandbars is disturbing.  The benefits of rain, in addition to dust-settling, is nice, too.  Daffodils are in abundance, while the plethora of flowering Bradford Pear trees are breathtaking and something that usually don't happen for a few weeks farther into the year.  At least those things can be enjoyed.  This incessant rain can't.  I should be happy that it isn't snowing, because it's been known to do that...as much as 12 inches.  Ahhhhh, Spring!

Summer will soon be here--the temps did hit 80 before the sky decided to open up and drench us--and there's no doubt I'll complain about the hot weather then, just as much as I'm complaining about the rain now. Honestly, if I'd had the pleasure of just returning from a long vacation in Tahiti (does that still exist with that name?), I'd be jabbering on about the beach and the sun and the weather.  With my luck, it would be raining there, too.

Back to CCR and Who'll Stop the Rain...

Stay dry!  Stay warm!  And wait out whatever weather has befallen you.  It'll change.  On that we can count. :)

Bad weather always looks worse through a window. ~ Tom Lehrer