“Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore…”

Tags

Arkansas, bow echo, Ireland, Kansas, photography, spring, thunderstorm, weather

Happy May, everyone! I thought I’d kick off this so-called month of flowers with a bang by writing my first post in the middle of a thunderstorm. Not outside, of course– my braces make me an excellent conductor for electricity– but while it rages outside my kitchen windows. And rage it does, my friends. It’s a gigantic storm system that stretches from Oklahoma across poor little Arkansas all the way to Nashville, TN. My weatherman is on the news right now calling it a “bow echo” system, whatever that is. All I know is it’s raining in my front yard to beat the band, and we’re expecting wind gusts up to eighty miles an hour. It’s really rather exciting– but don’t tell my poor, terrified mother I said that.

 

Since there’s obviously not a whole lot I can do right now– besides sit here and hope I don’t have to make a mad dash for the cellar– how about some pictures? Pictures illustrating how closely Arkansas in the springtime resembles Ireland or possibly a jungle in Vietnam. Would you like to see some pictures like that? I hope so, because– oh dear, the lights just flickered. Thank God I have a laptop. Anyway, they’re really great pictures. Keep yours eyes peeled for Leprechauns. And monkeys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love how green it gets here in April/May. We’ve had scarcely any sunshine and no break from rain, but to see the landscape transform into Eden like this makes it worth while. It’s like the greenery wakes up over night and just explodes. As a girl, when my mom visited Arkansas for the first time she had come from Kansas. She said it was like drop-landing in an entirely different country– an alien planet that was suddenly vibrantly, violently green. No doubt she felt a little like Dorothy.

 

 

Now I live in this humid place– my own personal Oz. Where we can shoot mosquitoes off our front porch with a shotgun. Boy, I just love happy endings… 

Take the Weather with You

Tags

Andy Griffith Show, country humor, deer tracks, family, ice storm, photography, weather, winter

Jimmy Buffet says that no matter where you go, you take the weather with you. That’s a nice thought, and if it holds any water at all, I’d really like to see an influx of Floridians come vacationing in the great state of Arkansas about now. As I type this I am listening to the static of sleet on the tin roof, and the weatherman has warned that Northeast Arkansas and Southeast Missouri could be without power for as much as two weeks when it’s all said and done.

My dad, ever the optimist, tried to console my mother– but he ended up making matters worse when he said, ”Don’t worry, babe, the power probably won’t go out until one or two-o’-clock in the morning.” Mom hates storms of any kind and this news only made her turn a little paler. She asked what made him guess it would go out then and he replied matter-of-factly, “Well that’s when the trees will start coming down, naturally.” So as you might have guessed, Dad is the nonchalant hillsman in the house and Mom is on pins and needles. I myself side with Dad, as I’m always up for a little pioneering– assuming it isn’t too much.

Apparently the last storm of this caliber hit in 1993, while Mom was pregnant with me. Trees and limbs were downed everywhere, leaving Mom and Dad without power for two weeks. Because the damage was pretty widespread, the electric company seemed to be taking a very long time to get everything fixed. Well, along about the tenth day, Dad had a very angry pregnant lady on his hands, threatening to leave him if he didn’t figure out something that could be done about the power. A tough Tweedy and always a firm believer in the old adage, “if you want something done, do it yourself”– Dad went out and fixed that line, somehow avoiding electrocution and divorce.

Well, nothing much to do now but wait for those trees to come down. Catch you later.

 

 

Andy: Opie, don’t you ever feel like giving somebody something just for the joy of doing it and not expecting in return?

Opie: Why sure, Pa– just the other day I gave my pal Jimmy somethin’.

Andy: You did? See, that’s what I’m talking ’bout. What’d you give him?

Opie: A sock in the head.

Andy: Opie! I meant actually give somebody something out of charity that you could get enjoyment out of!

Opie: But, Pa, I did enjoy it…