Monday.....

Not much going on lately. It rained again most of yesterday and today. This much rain is so unusual for Vegas. I love the rain, really I do, and in those long months between March and August when not a cloud crosses the sky I go crazy for lack of rain, but after you've been here for a while you get accustomed to a water-free atmosphere. It starts to rain and I'm thrilled, but after about half an hour the voice in the back of my head is sounding alarms. What's going on? Why is it still raining? Something is wrong. The universe is out of balance. I suppose someone in Seattle would feel a similar discomfort at an unusually long dry and sunny spell. I wouldn't know for sure, though, since I've never personally been anyplace where it rained all the time. I went to London once, and they immediately proceeded to have a record heatwave. I often wonder what it must be like to live in a wet, green place where plants grow easily and the soil is rich and fertile. Years ago we almost bought a farm in Oklahoma. It was 160 acres in the middle of rolling hills and dense woods. To get to it you drove half a mile off the paved road down a shady green tunnel of trees to a gate. From the gate you looked across to a little house on a hill overlooking a pond. There were three 40 acre cleared fields and 20 acres of woods with deer and wild turkeys and blue dragonflies the size of my thumb. The back boundry was a "creek", a river to me, and there were dozens of pecan and plum trees. Around it all was forest. If there were neighbors, you couldn't see them. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been and I loved it at first sight. Unfortunately, it was a time when we had limited resources and had to partner with Rodney's parents to get the farm. We'd made an offer and been accepted and were arranging for appraisal when they decided they'd rather not tie up their money right then. Looking back, I doubt either Rodney or I could have withstood longterm close contact with his parents and it was probably for the best that it fell through, but sometimes I still dream of that farm and I can see it now in my mind in incredible detail.......

Humph. I wouldn't know what to do with myself in Oklahoma anyway. All the humidity and Baptists. Just as well I stay here on this side of the Rockies. You can take the girl out of the desert, but you can't take teddy bear cholla thorns out without a magnifying glass and a fine pair of tweezers.

I've rambled on long enough here. Avarie wants a bedtime story.