Getting colder....I'm tired of winter!

This week is supposed to be our first real snowfall in Oklahoma.  We had a little last week but not enough to even cause a rush to buy toilet paper and milk.  In Oklahoma, when the weather gets bad, everyone gets freaked out and makes a mad rush to buy toilet paper and milk.  I worked at a grocery in college and it would just crack me up!  We would sell a week's worth of milk in one night if snow was in the forecast! 

Now, I've said before, Oklahoma is not someplace you want to be in a snowstorm because we are worse than woefully prepared.  Our idea of a sand and salt truck is two guys pitching it out the back of a pickup truck! We just don't get enough to justify buying all that snow removal equipment that northern states have.  Another reason is that, even though it might snow twelve inches on one day, the next day may be sunny and sixty degrees! Remember, I'm from the birthplace of Will Rogers who said, 'if you don't like the weather, wait a minute."  Some attribute that to other famous people, but in Claremore, Oklahoma we say they copied it from Mr. Will Rogers. 

When I was a kid, I came to the Will Rogers Memorial Museum with my grandparents and I guess my parents.  I don't really remember them being with us.  I was probably twelve years old and in that 'I just wish my parents didn't exist' phase so I've blocked them out of the memory.  Anyway, I remember looking up at Will Rogers genealogical tree and my grandma pointed out a name.  Grandma said, that's your great-great grandmother, maybe she said great grandmother or great-great-great grandmother, I can't really remember.  All I can remember is that somehow, we were related to Will Rogers!  That sure made the museum more exciting!

What I found out later, was that Will's family actually blocked my family from getting indian land because of a family dispute and it ended up going all the way to the supreme court! Of course, my side of the family lost so we aren't claimed by the Oklahoma cherokee tribe.  So when people ask me if I'm indian, I say 'we are with the South Carolina cherokees!  Since the Oklahoma cherokees didn't want us, I'll just rejoin the South Carolina cherokees!

It's funny how history so long ago still hurts today.  To not be accepted into the tribe because of a family dispute! My grandmother was angry about that for many, many years and I guess I'm still smarting about it now! 

Oh well, snows supposedly coming tonight. To quote my famous cousin.....I think I'll just wait a few minutes.......

Lightning!

Last night, we finally had some rain!  It was so enjoyable, we all gathered on the back porch and sat and watched the lightning show and watched as the rain moved in.  Lightning used to scare me when I was a kid but my mom would sit on our front porch with me and watch the storm move across the sky. 

Powerful is the word I would use for lightning.  These big, bright streaks across the sky brought with it welcome relief from the intense heat and drought we were having.  Such excitement!  Living on the edge of the great prarie, I often wonder what it was like two hundred years ago when lightning came bringing rain but also the threat of fire.  Fire was good because it burned off the old, dead grass so new, fresh grass would grow and bring the buffalo.  You'd maybe lose your home to fire but you'd also probably have fresh meat.

For now, I'm just content to watch God's light show in the sky and marvel at it's awesomeness!

Hot, hot, hot....

The weatherman showed the ten day forecast last night and it is supposed to be over 100 degrees for the next ten days.  I really don't like the weatherman during this part of the year!  Extreme heat is not my idea of a good time.  I don't like going outside, dragging the hose all over trying to keep my little plants alive during this heat!

I always look at August in Oklahoma like January in Indiana where we used to live.  In Indiana in January, it was so cold that you couldn't really do much of anything outside.  Even going to the grocery store was a major ordeal, especially with little kids!  That's kind of what it is like now in Oklahoma.  My daughter and I ran out to do a few errands yesterday and all I wanted to do was run from the parking lot to the cool store and back again. 

The major difference between Oklahoma in August and Indiana in January is that tonight, about seven o'clock, I'll be laying around in the pool cooling off from picking garden and watering.  I'll wear my swimming suit and cover-up to do my outside chores and then jump in and float around for awhile while the sunsets. We usually have a really pretty sunset. 

Can't do that in Indiana in January.......

May in Oklahoma

Ok, I'm grumpy and tired.  This is Oklahoma in May! Tornado season and my weather radio keeps reminding me at awful hours.  Hours when decent people should be asleep in their own beds.  I have my radio set for only severe weather in my county but I swear those people at the national weather service must get a perverse thrill at setting off those alarms every thirty minutes and it's the same severe thunderstorm warning! Why oh why does it need to keep reminding me?

We have a lot of trains in the town I live in.  Trains going and coming at all hours of the day and night.  If you are running late in Claremore, Oklahoma, you get a pass if you just claim a train made you late.  Everybody believes it because it's happened to all of us!   Even the school kids get a pass if they claim a train made them late for school.  Sometimes they just park on the tracks to annoy me I think!  Anyway, they have to blow their horns at every intersection.  During the day, they just toot the horn a little but at night, well, at night they begin blowing about a mile from town and keep it steady until they are about a mile out of town.  I've always said I think that night train conductor has an ex-wife who lives here.  I wish she would move! You do get to ignore it after a while unless you're sleeping with the windows open.  You can't get used to the tornado warnings though, they go off just enough to keep you up all night!

I often think about the boy who cried wolf as I'm laying in bed trying to get back to sleep after it's gone off every thirty minutes for a few hours.  When it's the real thing, I'll probably just ignore it and be swept off to Oz!  Oh, and now, I've signed up for text messaging so when the radio goes off a few minutes later, my cell phone goes off.  Too Much Information at two o'clock in the morning!  Tonight, I think I'll just unplug and turn-off everything and try to sleep.  Then I'll probably just lay there in bed wondering if I'm going to get blown away! Nah, I think I'll just leave it all on and pray for clear skies!

Reason I moved to Oklahoma!

Good grief! It's colder than blue blazes out there this morning. I remember why I moved back down south, I'm a big weinie when it comes to cold. I always say I'd rather be cold than hot because you can always put on more clothes but I think I'm mistaken. There comes a point when you can't put on enough clothes to be warm! I generally do like Oklahoma's climate but this morning I can't help but thinking about the people who lived in sod huts out here 100 years ago, they were really tough. I would have packed it in and moved further south!

I'm thinking about the phrases we say in different parts of the country today. Colder than blue blazes being one of them. As a former science teacher, I know that the blue flame in a bunsen burner is actually the best, hottest flame so why do we say 'colder than blue blazes'? Where does that come from?

I come from a long line of phrase users, it must be a southern thing. My dad's favorite saying is, 'better than a sharp stick in the eye'. He says that when you aren't really pleased with what you're getting. Like a bologna sandwich instead of a ham sandwich. I use that phrase a lot around my kids, 'hey, you don't want sausage pizza, well, it's better than a sharp stick in the eye!' Almost anything is better than a sharp stick in the eye, except maybe a dull stick, not that it would matter. Any stick in the eye would put your eye out and hurt like the dickens! (whatever dickens are is beyond me!)

Here's a short list of crazy phrases that I use on a day-to-day basis:
don't look a gift horse in the mouth
bigger than dallas
crazy as a bedbug
hungry as a horse
lazy as my son - oh, wait, that's not a crazy phrase, that's true! Ha!

Oh well, bless someone today with a gift of service!