Might As Well Be ....

 

Two out of three of our Saucer Magnolias are blooming.  It is a couple months early, but they are.

It makes me hope that we're in for an early spring - emphasis on hope - much as I dislike cold weather, I can't really believe we could skip winter entirely.

Still - - -

We also have Azaleas beginning to bloom.

In Your Dreams

 Got an email from my sister this morning.  It said:

> Had a dream last night that defies my interpretation. It was of you

> and Honey getting married at a special skiing venue. All the guests

> were seated at tables, and then you and Honey each skied down the

> slope between the tables and to the altar. Honey came first, and

> naturally she was a very polite and reasoned skier who greeted people

> along the way. You were spraying snow on the guests as you went by

> laughing and slaloming from one side to the other. It was quite interesting.

I replied that I had only been on skis once, and that was on the golf course at Tartan Park, the 3M country club in St Paul, Mn.  Honey has never been on skis in her life.

I am not sure what the dream was supposed to represent, but I guess dreams don't have to make sense.

Rain

 

The local weather wizards told us it was going to rain yesterday.  They just didn't come anywhere near on the amount - guessing about two inches along the coast and less elsewhere.  Oh, and they didn't say a darn thing about tornadoes.

Actual rainfall totals were much heavier north of I-10.  

Our rain gauge maxxes out at six inches and it was full to overflowing while five miles north of us the Plum Grove Fire Department spent the night doing high water rescues.  

There were numerous small tornadoes from Humble to Kenefick.  Nothing huge, but big enough to do damage.

All in all, it made for an interesting 24 hours.

Ripley

 

Ripley impressed the trainer at puppy school this week, but here at home the house training is still hit or miss - mostly miss.

He actually asked to go out yesterday. He did his thing and was praised for being such a good boy.  A half hour later, he had gone on the rug.

It's been twenty years since we had a puppy (puppies) in the house, but we don't remember it being this much of a challenge.

Summing Up 2021

 

The Big Drop

 The local weather gurus have been warning us for a week, and for once they were right. After a balmy New Year's Day at the Boggy Thicket, the bottom dropped out overnight.

Yesterday at this time (2:50 p.m.) the temperature was 82⁰ and today it is 37⁰ with a wind-chill factor that make it feel like the upper 20s.

Looks like we'll have the first freeze of the year tonight.

New Year

 Happy New Year. 

I'm not sure we are not going to have a major money crisis this year, but I'm holding out hope that this will be a better year than the last one, or the one before that,