sunrays and saturdays

Power was out from about 9:30 this morning until 30 minutes ago. One of my advisors lives east of Norman, and he hasn't had power at his house for over 12 hours now. Oklahoma Gas and Electric estimates that some people may not have power restored for over a week. I'm thinking that after this mess clears up Jeremy and I need to invest in a generator. At the very least, we could use it to run some electric heaters and blankets. We were fortunate with this storm that the ground is still warm, so the roads are in decent shape. Hence, power can be restored fairly quickly. I can't imagine how much this would have sucked if it had hit in January and then not melted at all for a week or longer. We would have been without power for days rather than hours.

Anyway, have some pretty pictures. We're going to drive around a bit, take some more pictures, and pick up some Sonic since we haven't eaten hardly anything since the power went out.

In case anyone is curious, no, our house is not floating away. We live at the top of one of the highest hills around, so the worst flooding we ever see is when the ditch in our front yard turns into raging rapids as all the water gets bottlenecked at the storm drain. Ooo, excitement. I did drive through some street flooding to get in to Norman this morning, and the water was still flowing over the road on my way home. We're going to get a lot more rain in the next several days, so it'll be interesting to see what else happens on these hilly rural roads that we live on. There are lots of small creeks and low areas along the way that tend to get a little flashy when heavy rain happens. Even so, there are lots of ways for me to get to Norman. Some of them just happen to be longer than others. :)

Most of you probably don't know or even care that Oklahoma City is flooding. I wasn't paying attention to it at all either until my Dad called tonight to tell me that my Grandma was freaking out thinking we're drowning down here. I'm assuming she saw it on the news somewhere. My Dad was quick to remind her that Jeremy and I both are METEOROLOGISTS. What he didn't mention was that my area of research is also HYDROLOGY. I appreciate her concern, but it is kind of amusing. Dad told me not to mention the lightning incident because then she'd really have a reason to get into a tizzy. :p

It's time for a cool down/hydration break after working outside for the last two hours. The builder of this subdivision brought some topsoil fill dirt in a dumptruck but left it in a huge pile so that it's our job to spread it around. You see, instead of laying down sod for the lawn, he just left bare ground figuring that the grass would fill in on its own. Well that was a stupid idea. We have more weeds and stickers than grass, and a few good rainstorms have washed huge ruts downslope to the ditch. The natural soil here is mostly clay, and the recent drought has made it rock hard so the grass is not only drying out but is also having trouble getting established in the areas that are still bare. The purpose of the rich top soil is to fill in the ruts and hopefully give the grass a chance to quickly grow into it to prevent more erosion. Jeremy and I have spent several hours in the past two days getting the dirt where it needs to be. Now Jeremy's at work all day, so the job falls to me. Woo. Hoo.

On an unrelated note, today is my journal's fifth anniversary. Yay!

Woooooooooooooooooo craziness. The last couple of days have been insane what with all the packing, lifting, three flights of stairs, driving, maneuvering around doors, lack of internet, unpacking, and unprecedented spendage of money. Everything of mine is finally in one place again and is gradually coming out of the boxes, so the life pace is thankfully slowing down. This apartment's so cute and perfect for me. The only drawbacks of it are the lack of dishwasher, coin-operated laundry, and somewhat of a lack of decent storage space. Right now I'm giving many of my boxes a bewildered look just because I haven't the faintest idea where I'm going to put their contents.

I made sun tea as a reward to myself for getting so much done today. :)

It is now 95 degrees with a dewpoint of 80 fucking degrees. The heat index is 115. It's 2pm. Have I made it clear enough that I hate summer? Because I do.

The odd thing is that my apartment really isn't that hot yet. It's...warm, but not swelteringly uncomfortable. It pays off to keep your windows and blinds shut when it's hot outside. Your first inclination may be to open all the windows you can find, but why let the heat in at all?? It works, people.

For the 19294928022th time, it's cold in this apartment. Blarg.

Oh for fuck's sake. We're supposed to get another 8 or so inches of snow by Monday morning. However, at home they're supposed to get over 10 inches with freezing rain first, AND my grandpa's going to get about five inches out in western Kansas. That is very good news, because they need the precip for their wheat very VERY badly. I wish I could send some of mine down to him. Eh well.

......this is a boring weekend.

I have a large amount of rage for someone in this building. Since there's only one washer and dryer for six apartments here, it's usually customary (albeit rude) to take someone's clothes out of the washer or dryer if you need to use it and theirs are done. I have no problem with people doing that to my clothes. So, when my clothes needed to go in the dryer, I took the dry clothes out that were in there and placed them in a chair nearby. Well, I don't know who the numbnut was, but when he went down there after I was gone, he took my very wet clothes out of the dryer and put his DRY clothes back in USING MY CYCLE. So basically, he robbed me of three very precious quarters. When I noticed this, I very willingly ripped his clothes out of the dryer and put mine back in...with three more quarters of course, because I don't know how much time he took from my other load. If I were a meaner person, I would have left his shit on the dirty concrete floor, but I didn't. People piss me off sometimes.

Wow...

Vickie's mother (my step-grandmother) needs some good thoughts right now. Dad just called me, and apparently her entire house burned to the ground Sunday night. They think there was a gas leak in the basement, and when the hot water heater or the furnace kicked on, the gas ignited and literally blew up the house. She lost everything. This was a house that she has lived in her entire life. She raised her children there. She lost so many things that can never be replaced. I've been there before, and that house was packed with keepsakes, collectibles, pictures, and all kinds of little things that her family had accumulated over the years. On top of everything else, they had just finished majorly re-doing the place. They painted all the walls, replaced all the windows, put in new carpet, and who knows what else. I feel for her, I really do. I can most definitely relate. In February, it will have been three years since our house burned up. I think her situation is so much worse, though. The entire thing is ashes now. When we had our house fire, the fire damage was all contained upstairs in my bedroom, the bathroom, and the hallway. Everything else was just smoke damage and just needed to be cleaned, so we didn't actually lose everything. I lost the most, but even I had a lot of things in other parts of the house that were untouched.

The bright light about this is that Vickie's family is so well known in the area. There are people from all over the state donating things and sending money and good wishes. It sucks that it takes a terrible thing to happen to be able to see the best side of people, but it makes the terrible thing more bearable.

FUCKING HELL! I forgot to forecast again today. I just love how I always manage to fuck myself over just when I get going really good.

It's fucking freezing again in this apartment. The heat did kick in and actually work last time it got cold, but now it is the coldest it has been all season and the heat's not working again. I kinda nonchalantly told Daddy dearest about it tonight on the phone, and now he's on a crusade to make me look like a victim. He wants me to go buy an electric heater RIGHT NOW, then call the landlords tomorrow and chew some royal ass about the heat not working. Actually, he was *this* close to calling them himself, and he tried to get ahold of Mom to have her do it. I practically had to beg him not to, though, because in my opinion, there's nothing more annoying than a young girl (or boy) who has her mommy and daddy fight all her battles for her. Yes, it's cold. It's probably in the 40s in here, and I can't feel my fingers, toes, or nose. HOWEVER, I do have blankets, warm clothes, and hot tea, and I'm perfectly capable of keeping myself warm. I just reserve the right to whine about it a little.