Roll Over and Hit the Snooze

Baseball season is over for Cubs fans like myself. It really has been since the August slide, but I have hung in there with hope until they were mathematically eliminated. The Miracle Mets of 1969 came to mind, and so I thought there was some possibility. How wrong can one man be?

Good things are beginning to happen, though. This morning, around 4AM, I was awakened to a sound which I had not heard in quite some time….rain on the roof! We had a downpour which lasted for about two hours. That may not be news where you live, but here in the desert, we cherish that sound like no other. It is amazing what a little thing like rain can be taken for granted.

People out here go crazy when it rains. One would think that 30 inches of snow was about to fall. The TV stations go crazy with weather and traffic updates, there are live reports as if this phenomenon occurs once in a blue moon. And, it does.

The rain this morning was the first we have had in our part of the valley for over a month. Imagine that, 30 days without rain falling from the sky. (We get rain, and the Dakotas and parts of Wyoming get snow already.) Many people out here were running around like Chicken Little. My neighbor was out in it washing his car! Our street floods sometimes, so some kids were readying their rafts to go floating down the street BEFORE SCHOOL!

Arizona has what is named, “The Stupid Motorists Law.” No joke, that is the name of the law. It goes something like this: If you drive your car into an area that is marked, “Do no enter when flooded” and you get caught and the police and fire departments have to rescue you, then you pay the bill for those services work, AND you get a big fine.

Imagine, my friends back in the Midwest, if the stupid motorists law applied to you during a snow storm. It certainly would cut down on people needing to be pulled out of snowdrifts on the Interstate, wouldn’t it? You pay for the tow, and you get a fine for being out when you were told travel was hazardous. “Boss, sorry, I can’t come in today. The risk of being caught in the storm is too great.”

A little advice, if you please. When trying to decide what the weather is going to be like in the Midwest during the winter, watch the Southwest. Our rain patterns eventually cross over into Colorado, Northern Texas and Oklahoma, then make a beeline for the Midwest. Where we have rain, you will soon have snow once the temperatures drop. And, according to the Almanac, we are in for the wettest winter. I guess you can see what that means for you.

On those cold, snowy mornings, you can do what I did today; roll over and hit the snooze.

Doughnut

Where every you are, that is where you are at.

What a great day! I have been perusing Facebook this morning, checking in on my peeps back in Illinois. I even called back to the local power company to check on a piece of mail and was able to talk to Mrs. Brown back there. She and the others told me that the cold, windy, rainy, snowy, truly miserable season is beginning back there. I paused for a second, gave thanks, and then smiled from ear to ear.

I know, I tend to gloat over the fact that I am rarely cold anymore. We have our air conditioning on until the temperature drops to below 90, which is usually near mid-October. Heat? We seem to store it up. Last year, we had our heat on in the house a total of one day. We use it in 10-15 minute spurts to take the chill out, then once the sun comes up, it goes off for the rest of the day. Sleeping is fantastic.

I made a comment a few blogs ago about how bad I felt for those who live in Denver, CO. Denver got SNOW on the next to last day of SUMMER. I am sorry, that is just not right. Justin Kingston emailed me and told that he would take the weather, the views, and the people of Denver any day of the year, and it was worth doing some shoveling. Denver averages sixty-one inches of snow, and that is a great deal of shoveling. Me? I feel it is easy to shovel sunshine.

Sure, Denver has snow-capped mountains, but there is nothing better than the Sonoran Desert at sunset with its majestic Saguaro Cactus opening its arms to the sky surrounded by a background of mountains. Did I mention that we get sunshine? Arizona, not Florida, is the true Sunshine State. With over 300 days of the golden rays, the state is a winter refuge for many snowbirds.

I have begun to get a glow, not a tan. It is kind of like that doughnut that is in the hot grease, gets that perfect color, and is still soft on the inside. Out here, I have a tough time sleeping. Not because I have some sleep disorder, but because I am excited to awaken and see the sun come up.

Where ever you are, though, is where you’re at. And that place is the current place for you. Enjoy.

Doughnut