Sunday, August 9, 2009

When the rains come

I got to thinking. This is about the driest year on record here which lead me to think about the Dust Bowl days. We think we have it bad now? This is a picnic compared to what they went through. Most houses in the midwest back then were little more than clapboard tents. The dust would blow right through the gaps in the clapboards. No pink insulation then. Mothers would take rags soaked with water and flour to try and fill the gaps. Kids had to go to school with a kerchief on their faces and wear it all day. One old guy remembers the dust being so bad that you couldn't see the teacher standing at the front of the room.

So I wonder are the spirits angry or is this just mother nature's way of thining out the herd? If you look around your place here you'll see the damage from a hard winter and the brown lawns and dead plants. The trees are starting to shed leaves and it's not the time of year for that. What will survive and what won't? I've been able to half bring back a few plants with water and food. But then what about people? The old weak ones will leave us as will the very young and uninsured. Makes you wonder if you're on the list. Did I save enough? Will I make it through without some medical or financial emergency? Will there be an end to the drought? I've cut back to two meals a day. Will that be enough to to make it to better times?
Needless to say it's overcast here today. It hasn't rally rained yet but you can see the mist. Kind of a tease. And when the rains come will we go back to our foolish ways of buying so much junk that we'll need to rent a space to store it? Maybe or maybe not. We just might become like our parents who always said "you didn't live through the depression" and they were right but we now have one to call our very own . It may not be as bad by comparison but it's bad. So like an expectant father we wait for baby good times to get here. When is anyone's guess but we can all agree it's not soon enough.

9 comments:

Tom Harper said...

We got some rain here yesterday and last night. The air is so much cleaner and fresher now. It's hard to tell how much we got. The local paper always underestimates how much rain we got the previous day, but there were lots of puddles in the streets.

The local rag keeps scaring us with all these stories about fire hazards and droughts, and then when it rains they say we didn't get any. Or if there's a huge downpour, they'll say we got .02 inches of rain. I don't know what their motive is, but it gets really irritating.

Holte Ender said...

North Georgia has had record rain fall, Savannah is 9 inches above normal for the year, we are 50 miles from Savannah and as dry as a bone, 100F today, 102 tomorrow and Tuesday, we catch a break on Wednesday it drops to 98.

jmsjoin said...

The weather is really Topsy Turvey this year. My garden is all screwed up. Right now it is 64 and preparing to rain again. We had 2 months of straight rain in Ma and almost zero sun. Summer is almost over and it never came.

BBC said...

Tom lives in the same area I do so he knows that this has been a great summer for us with little rain. Even though it's sort of dry here it's not too bad.

We have tons of streams around here so I think there will always be enough water for us. If they would just stop allowing others to move here. But greed drives the business monkeys to inviting others.

Helen is 86 and lived her first 14 years in east central Montana and can tell you all about living in a harsh place in a leaky home. Lived in a few places like that myself when young. Like in a sheep wagon in Wyoming. But I was young and too stupid to think it was harsh, I actually enjoyed it.

Makes you wonder if you're on the list.

I've never wondered about that, I know that my days are numbered. In fact I'm often amazed that I made it here this long. I always eat dessert first, just in case.

BBC said...

The weather getting worse is mankind's fault. I expect it to continue to get even worse.

S.W. Anderson said...

We were having a July-into-August as hot and dry as Winter was long, wet and cold. That changed this week with a cool spell, down in the low 50's overnight, up to only about 70 one day, and some rain showers. I think we're back to a high pressure with warmer temps from today on, though.

This is a fairly common summer pattern for Eastern Washington.

BBC said...

It looks like the flu thing may be kicking up pretty bad this fall and winter also, from what I see in the news.

It may pay to keep a low profile this winter and avoid others the best you can.

Anonymous said...

Oh Demeur. Tomorrow's post at my place was made for you, ya ol' sweetie. When Joe and I came to Florida we single handedly stopped their 5 year drought. Then when I flew home to get my driver's license renewed, our town FLOODED and cars were floating on Main Street. Should I come visit??

Roger Owen Green said...

Too much rain in ALB, NY. We'll export some to you.