We are fortunate this year to have green grass in August.  It is not very often when the driest, hottest time of year ends up being very comfortable as it has been this year.  Oklahoma has a little of both cold and hot here being in the central plains.  We have about 36 inches of rain a year though July and August are typically very dry.  Most years our grass dies and turns brown during July and August and then eventually turns green again in September when it cools down and the rains return.  This year, we have been fortunately to have some rain in August to bring the grass back.  In the picture above is a series of water slides at Whitewater Bay near Reno and Meridian in Oklahoma City.  When I was a teenager this was one of my favorite places in the world.  I think most teens would love a place like this.  There are many other rides in this park that are not visible. It just looked very colorful as I drove by and so I had to stop and take this picture.

It is not that often that a person can get it so wrong that it brings fear to them.  Just 30 minutes ago I was complaining about the rain always missing us. This evening was shaping up to be another one of those evenings where there is a line of thunderstorms that goes completely across the state and then forms a hole just as it passes the metro area.  As much as I love storms I find myself getting mad when this happens.  Well I guess I insulted God, or angered him in some way because shortly after that, we had a downpour.  I would estimate that the wind was blowing nearly 80 MPH in the above photo.  You can even see a leaf blowing by in this shot.

In this picture you can see how the street was flooded near my home.  This is the rain that we never get.  I would say the water was about four inches deep in the center of the road here.

In the picture above you can see the tree branch laying in the road with the hail splashing in the flooded street.  The storm was almost over at this point and you can see the elementary school in the background is showing signs of the sun coming out.

This is the beautiful sky as the storm is moving away.  The large bird circles over head asking himself “What was that?”  I really enjoyed this storm and wanted to share it with the rest of you.  That wind did get a little scary at one point.  I missed some great shots because I was trying to keep the camera dry.  At one point the wind was blowing so hard and the rain was coming down so hard that I could barely see across the street.  I do not want to be known as the one that always complains when things are going bad and never give God credit when things are going well.  We really needed this rain and it was a real blessing.  I am very thankful to be able to get rain especially when two hours earlier it was 97 degrees.  If you want to see the rest of the pictures, just click on any one of them and it will take you to Flickr to see the whole set.  Thanks for stopping by.

Tonight a storm went by here and barely brushed by us to the East.  We did manage to get enough light rain while the sun shine over head.  The one good thing that did come from this was this pretty rainbow to the East.  I will take whatever rain we can get but we really need some more.  The rainbow was a real blessing to look at it.  Also it cooled the temperature from 97 degrees to about 85 in just a half hour.  I just wanted to share this image.

I long ago noticed a trend that happens more often than you may think. I have noticed that many times we will have a line of storms that go from Kansas to Texas, or Texas to Arkansas and the storm will somehow miss us.  How does this happen?  The storm will be a non stop line all the way across the state and yet just before it arrives in the Oklahoma City area and a hole will appear so that it completely misses us.  Once it passes, it will rejoin and it once again goes all the way across the state. Someone like myself that loves stormy weather notices these types of things.

I think I will start saving screen shots of radar views any time I catch this happening.  I know it sounds like a non issue but it is amazing how often this happens.

This joyous day is tempered with sadness with the loss of my grandmother.  She went to be with Jesus on Friday the 10th of April and tomorrow is her funeral.  She will certainly be missed as she was a very good person and loved by everyone that knew her.  She had a bad stroke on March first and finally ended her fight on Friday.

This week has been very eventful with some an incredibly windy day driving a small fire into being a large one.  There were many homes lost around the city because these fires were out of control.  They were still burning as recent as yesterday.  Thankfully the powerful winds that drove the flames were replaced by rain last night.  We received more than an inch of much needed rain extinguishing the fires.

Now I am going to be off work the rest of this coming week because I have a funeral to go to as well as finish my school paper.  I must turn in my final draft by next Friday and time is running out.  This journey is almost over and I can hardly wait.

KFOR is saying that South East Oklahoma will get 6-20 inches of rain and that Oklahoma City should get as little as 1/2 inch on the western suburbs to 4 inches near Shawnee.  That 20 inch estimate sounds like a stretch to me but we will see. A couple nights ago we had an incredible lightning storm that sure lit things up.  I have been watching a lot of the hurricane coverage all morning and it looks as though New Orleans missed the worst and it should begin improving from here.  I even heard they are going to let everyone go back tomorrow.  Looks like the prayers were heard and for the most part, they have avoided too much damage.  I see the news reporters standing in New Orleans and the lights are still on so they have not even lost electricity at least where the reporter is standing.  I would imagine that tomorrow we will see some of the damage and it likely will not be as bad as the storm in 2005, or at least we hope so.

Here it is August 16th and the blog is back up better than ever and we have had six inches of rain over the last week. The weather people have been forecasting 3 to 4 more inches before the weekend is over and I love it. My grass is actually green again and it is nice and cool 70 degrees outside. Additionally my wife picked out another cat for me.  She is very cute and lovable but she does not photograph very well. We still have not named her yet and she is shiny black with a white nose, and white feet. I have not been very successful at getting a good photo shot of her yet.  It seems that everything is going very smooth and life is good.   I really have no complaints as it is not often when we can boast 70 degrees with an overcast sky in the middle of August.  This is about as good as it gets.

Man what an absolutely wonderful morning we had today.  We have been so dry for such a long time that my grass was dead.  We have been over 100 degrees for some time.   Today we woke up to rain and it continued for at least four hours.  It is still completely overcast and I love it.  It is not often you have 70 degrees in an August afternoon in Oklahoma City.  All I can say is “Praise the Lord”!  The kids start school tomorrow and I took off work this afternoon.  I had class this morning at work.  I am very happy today with this wonderful fall like feeling and the rain.  Now that the blog is finished, I am even happier.  Lets hope that good times are ahead.

We just had a small shower move through and it was nice though we need much more.  We started off the year way above normal and then somewhere during June, it dried out and we have had very little rain since.  My grass has not been mowed in more than a month.  I am so glad to get some rain to give my lawn a little bit to survive on.  I just checked the National Weather Service page and they are forecasting a high of 82 and a low of 62 degrees on Friday.  I sure hope they are right because that would be incredibly cool for this time of year and this would be great!

This summer actually went pretty fast this year and I can hardly believe that school starts on Tuesday, August 12th.  This is amazing that it is already time to go back to school.  I have been off for the last week from the University of Oklahoma and do not go back until August 25th.  Two weeks have past since my father in-law’s dog chased my cat away and she has never come back.  This is a little sad because I have had her for six years.  I have pictures of my mom and my wife’s mom with the cat and they are both gone now.

It is funny how the NBA team still holds off on announcing the name of the new team when everyone knows it will be Oklahoma City Thunder.  Even now you can go to http://www.nba.com/thunder and it goes to a blank white page while nba.com/anything goes to a page not found.  Last Wednesday they goofed and put Oklahoma City Thunder schedule on the page on the day they released the 2008 – 2009 schedule.  I can only imagine the reason they are holding off on the announcement because they want to have all the shirts and artwork ready.  Lets hope they make the official announcement soon. I will be anxiously awaiting on the edge of my seat.

I am grateful that we have stayed cooler than normal this year. The temperature has not reached 100 degrees once this year and I am glad for that. Surprisingly my lawn is still pretty green. Usually this time of year the grass is dying off and the lawn is yellow. Oklahoma’s dry season is usually July through early September where we hardly get any rain. This just happens to be the hottest time of the year so this is when we need rain the most. It is quite pleasant to wake up and see the sky is overcast and the window is steamed over on the outside. We still have one window that is single pane and it is so cool in the house and the humidity is so high outside that the window steamed over on the outside.

Yesterday I had to go poison some more tree roots next door in the vacant house again. My battle with this tree has become a full blown war. If anyone knows of a way to kill a tree, please let me know. I have repeatedly posted about this nightmare tree that will not die. You may remember this miserable tree falling on our house during storms and was growing into the power lines from our neighbor’s rent house lawn. The roots continue to grow small trees, all over our yard and the neighbor’s yard. Since the house is vacant and will likely be vacant for a while, those small trees will grow to be larger trees. Most renters that I have seen just mow around it rather than mow them down so they grow to be huge trees right in the fence and we have the same problem we had before. I have chopped roots with an axe, and poured the brush killer in the open wounds with poor results. It amazes me that this tree still manages to survive after cutting it to the ground.

The tree was a large elm that I counted 48 rings in the stump so you can imagine how big the tree was. I would not want it dead if it was not in such an inconvenient place. I have a power pole with a large transformer in my back yard next to this tree. After losing the power box off the back of my house two ice storms in a row, I thought it was time to take it down. This tree is determined to survive though. It has become a quest with me. If I have to buy 55 gallon drums of tree killer for the next five years, I will win this battle . Cue the evil Vincent Price laughter. The people that lived here before us never trimmed around the fence line and we had all sorts of small trees growing on the fence line. I have cleared all of it out after that last ice storm and this tree is the lone hold out. Again, if you can think of any ideas that will finish this thing off, please let me know.
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