sunrays and saturdays

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OMG, do you really want to go there?

1. Garden City, KS
2. Ingalls, KS
3. Syracuse, KS (two different places)
4. Swink, CO
5. Pueblo, CO
6. Colorado City, CO
7. Dalhart, TX
8. Brewster, KS
9. Winona, KS
10. Deerfield, KS (two different places)
11. Holcomb, KS
12. Glencoe, OK
13. Greensburg, KS (two different places)
14. Haviland, KS
15. Pratt, KS (two different places)
16. Ames, IA (three different places)
17. Blanchard, OK

I know I'm missing some. I only know about those early moves from memory snippets and what my parents have told me. This also doesn't count all the places my mom lived after the divorce.

My favorite? Probably Ames. Although I love love love our house here in Oklahoma, I liked Ames as a place to live much more than I do here. Least favorite? Probably Dalhart, TX, although I don't remember much about it. All I know is that the four of us were crammed into a tiny apartment and I pretty much had the sense that none of us were happy there.

I'm back in Oklahoma. A little over 24 hours ago I was sunbathing by the pool on a gorgeous 75 degree day. It was 40 degrees in OKC when I stepped off the plane. Sigh...yes, I know it's not that cold here compared to a lot of places.

I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight. I missed my cats and boyfriend, too. :)

The OU game against Chattanooga isn't televised here, so I just went to espn.com to check the score. I knew it would be a blowout, but damn...50-0 and it's not even halftime yet?! Unless they're going for a record I think it's time to bring in the backups.

The July 4th war zone ambiance has started already. It's nice to be able to watch a fireworks display from the comfort of my front porch I guess. This is the first state I've lived in where any average Joe can walk into a fireworks stand, buy the BIG shells, and shoot them off anywhere he damn well pleases. I don't even think you need a permit or anything. In Kansas, you had to have a license/training to shoot the large shells off, and usually city displays were the only places you'd see them. Even for woosy stuff like fountains, black cats, and sparklers, the town I lived in required people to take them to designated places to shoot them off. They weren't allowed in city limits. Plus, I think they were only allowed ON July 4th or the few days around it. In Iowa, NOBODY could purchase fireworks or shoot them off except for cities. I was too young to remember what Texas and Colorado were like.

But Oklahoma? Last year there were two big fireworks displays within a quarter mile of our house, and I think they were better than the Norman one we drove 20 miles to see.

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.

I'm experiencing my first tropical depression! Who would have imagined I could have tornadoes, ice storms, AND tropical systems in one place? Being in the southern plains is certainly interesting.

This is definitely a tropical airmass. Dewpoints are in the low to mid 70s across the state, so the rain isn't cooling us off much. I'm easily amused, so I've been watching the barometric pressure plummet at Jeremy's weather station in the backyard as the center approaches. It's getting windier too. Squee!

Oh, and BTW, it was like Night of the Toads on the way home tonight. For some reason a BUNCH of them decided that they'd be safer sitting in the middle of the highway than risking drowning in a puddle. I think I ran over at least one for sure, but they're hard to avoid with all their hopping around. :(

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

Finally, I have my legitimate reason for preferring Oklahoma over Iowa. As of 3pm, it was 57 degrees here in Norman and 2 in Ames. I've been waiting to brag about this since the start of winter, but up until now we've been just as cold here as up there. Tomorrow it could be in the 60s!!

I don't have much else interesting to report. I just had to gloat. :p

Wow, the governor, lieutenant governor, state treasurer, state auditor, attorney general, state superintendent, labor commissioner, and insurance commissioner positions (all but corporation commissioner, big surprise) here in Oklahoma have all gone to Democrats so far. Admittedly a few of those races are still a little close, but wow. Oklahoma? Seriously? I'm impressed! They're still all either moderate or slightly conservative, but I'll take what I can get.



If you're like me and are easily amused, the independent running for Lieutenant Governor's name is E.Z. Million. Yes, this is apparently a real person. By the way, you should really check out what issues he supports.

P.S. I was just checking results online on MSNBC, and there's a breaking news banner across the top saying "South Dakotans reject nation's most restrictive law on abortion."

I'm leaving tomorrow morning for warm, sunny Oklahoma and won't be back until Thursday night, so have a great week y'all! :)