Summer has gone into overdrive. We have had several days where the mercury got above the 100° mark. We have gotten within a few degrees of breaking a record. Not a “this day in history” record, but the record for Nashville’s all time high temperature of 107°! The humidity has been down which means going outside feels like stepping into an oven instead of a sauna. It is very easy to get dehydrated. We are getting a break in the heat wave this weekend with highs only in the upper 90s.
DROUGHT. While I don’t think we have it as bad as folks around Chattanooga and northern Georgia, we are really seeing the effects of the drought. It is not a good year to be a farmer. The freeze back in the spring destroyed a lot of fruit and wheat crops. Now the corn and soybeans are looking really bad. Nobody has been able to cut hay since early June and pastures are so dry and brown that the grass crunches under your feet. The ponds are really starting to dry up too. About the only thing doing well is tobacco, which thrives in a hot, dry climate.
BACK TO SCHOOL. As you know from the last newsletter, the kids have started back to school. Jenna has Mrs. Reneé Fehrman as her fourth grade teacher. Ben has Mrs. Vicki Rippy as his first grade teacher (she was Jenna’s first grade teacher as well). We dropped in at open house on Monday. The kids went to school Tuesday. Wednesday was a holiday for them before classes started on Thursday. Ben was truly disappointed that he would not be going to school on Wednesday. This is good!
Actually, Ben came home from school Tuesday saying first grade was easier than kindergarten. Jenna rolled her eyes and reminded him that it was only the first day of school. Thursday Ben reported that they did homework all day long. Nate, who has one more year at home, misses his playmates.
GIRLS DAY OUT. Ginger and Angi, two of Vicki’s friends from high school (and college), happened to both go home to Camden this week to visit family. Vicki drove to Camden Thursday to spend the day with them. She had a great time chatting and catching up on what’s been going on with them.
THE LITTLE LADIES WHO CRIED “SALAMANDER.” Mom picked up the kids from the bus Thursday since Vicki was in Camden. When I got there after work the big excitement of the day was over the salamander that had gotten into the house.
As it turns out, Mom and Aunt Mar had misidentified it. It was actually a blue tailed skink. Either way, it was a lizard which is bad enough--worse with it being in the house.
Aunt Mar actually spotted the lizard’s foot under the door to the garage, and when she tried to see what it was it scurried under the dryer. Being intent on evicting this cold-blooded creature from her house she began her vigil to watch to see when it would get bored and make a run for other cover. This is where Mom found her when she came home from getting her hair fixed and she was still there when the kids came home from school.
To be as brief as possible, Aunt Mar is not the one to pull guard duty when your house has been infiltrated by lizards. Later the skink easily got past her and made a dive for cover under the dishwasher. Even later they saw it make a break toward the living room. That’s when Mom called us. Vicki answers the phone to hear my frantic mother shout, “Come quick! Tell Joe to come quick! Come quick! Come quick!”
Hearing this from across the room I figure something is wrong with Aunt Mar so I bolt out of my chair and nearly knock Jenna over in the hall as I head for the door. Fortunately, Vicki had gotten a little more info from Mom before I got out the door in a panic. As Jenna overheard Vicki’s end of the conversation and realized the whole thing was over the lizard she doubled over the couch with laughter. Vicki did not know Jenna had caught on and thought from the way Jenna’s shoulders were shaking that she was crying in distress.
When I got there the lizard was taking refuge under the living room couch. It had already lost its tail from the whole ordeal. I caught it and carried it outside. When I stopped by the next day I noticed a towel on the floor in front of the door leading out to the garage. Mom now has strict instructions to calm down before calling about small reptiles in the house.
STARGAZING. If you would have driven by our house this morning between 3:00 and 4:00 am you might have seen Jenna and me sitting out in chairs staring up at the eastern sky (no one else wanted to get up). That is because we wanted to catch the Perseids meteor shower which actually peaks tonight and tomorrow night.The shower happens this time every year and gets its name because the meteors seem to originate from the constellation Perseus. This is because we are passing through the debris trail of the Swift-Tuttle comet. Each “shooting star” is traveling about 37 miles per second as it burns up in the atmosphere. That’s really moving!
Jenna and I saw several flashes as we were outside (they come about one per minute or better). I only caught one really spectacular one that had a long trail as particles broke off the meteor. One thing that is helpful is that we have a new moon right now so you only have to deal with the pollution of city lights. By the way, we are in for a lunar eclipse at the end of the month.
Another interesting, but slower moving show is Mars as it approaches the constellation Tarus. Tarus , the bull, is a “V” shaped pattern in the sky. The point of the V is the nose and the ends are the tips of the horns. There is a bright red star, Aldebaran, in the middle of the lower leg of the V--making Tarus look like he is glaring at you with his red, right eye. Over the next two weeks Mars will be moving into position symmetrically opposite Aldebaran to make Tarus look like he has opened his red, left eye. This whole spectacle rises in the east around 10:00 or 11:00 pm.
Joe
