Shhh! Go back to sleep. I'm awake, I'll watch things. I can't believe my night is already over.

When is too much information bad?

With the coming of March and tornado season it seems that there are always more "tornado alley" television shows. Some fictional, some documentary.

I understand the need for information for prediction purposes. But I also am realistic that a triangular area beginning with a point and showing a widening area in a particular direction of travel is really a wild ass guess.

When doppler radar was introduced, it was touted to be the end all of radars. Now we have doppler 2. I have never been a fan of doppler because it seems the grid does not fit the map. Either the storms or the towns and communities are not where they say they are! I think they should refer to it as doppler for dopes!

I have no idea how many times I have heard the local stations urge listeners and viewers to take cover or get out of the path of a particular storm. Often times when I hear this I have picked up the phone to check on friends or family and their response is "No, the sun is shining. It looks like that storm went around us". At some point the warnings lose their impact.

I don't think I have ever been scared of weather. I think growing up I was more scared of going into that old dark, musty, storm cellar. I do think I was raised with a respect for weather and its possibilities. I'm not going to say I have never sat in a hallway as a precaution because I have, but parents usually err to the side of caution when it comes to their small children.

On the other hand, I have never understood storm chasers. It just doesn't make sense to me to blatantly disrespect something as powerful and unpredictable as nature. That's like waving the red handkerchief in front of the raging bull.

We laugh when we tell the story about Rian getting home from school one day when weather was very unsettled. He usually had about an hour lapse between when he got home and when one of us would get home. He would normally go to the house, drop off his things, grab a snack and go across the street to a neighbors. This neighbor was teaching him to play chess. On this particular day it was stormy. When Rian was in the house he heard the television weatherman telling residents to head to cover. "Go to an interior room or hallway or get in a bath tub and cover yourself with pillows or a mattress". Rian called the neighbor because now the winds were blowing and weather was happening. She told him to stay in the house and to get in the bath tub. When the brief storm had passed, the neighbor went across the street to check on Rian and take him to her house. What she found was that Rian had followed instructions and taken cover in the tub. She also found that Rian's mother had failed to drain the water. Rian had bought into the warning enough that he had jumped into a tub of water, fully clothed!

I can't wait to tell Reid and Holt about it!

Also during Rian's very young years he saw our home flood twice. I suppose it was because of these experiences he has always been edgy about the weather.

After Rian moved to Lubbock he developed a good friendship with a young man who was an aspiring meteorologist. This friend invited Rian to accompany him on a few storm tracker excursions. I think this probably did a lot for helping Rian understand the volatile weather. For a short while Rian had his own personal weatherman, but this friend has since moved to Tennessee.

I use to love to listen to my grandad as he talked of smelling the weather. Sometimes he would look at the hazy horizon and talk of how unsettled the weather was and issue a warning. "It's going to weather". Of course he used all sorts of tools in his predictions. Sight, smell, and animals, especially snakes. Of course he did live in a time when a person was more self-reliant and observant.

Thing is, he was usually right.

Well, as Monday's go yesterday was one. And that makes for a pretty bad Tuesday.

I know I have complained about being ADD lately, but it just seems like I CANNOT stay on task. I am a diversion waiting to happen. Yesterday I was at my computer early on and I had direction. Not far into my morning my cell phone began to ring. K.O. was back and he was shopping for some equipment. He was needing some dimension information and comparisons. I think he really wanted me to drive to his location but was reluctant to ask because of my patient I was carrying for, plus the fact that he didn't want this to be "on the clock".

My day never got back on track. From that point on it was simply "dog pile on me"! I did have a couple of errands to run mid afternoon. One was to the Federal Building in downtown. This building covers a city block and houses the downtown Post Office, the Federal Courts, and other Federal agencies. It is always a crap shoot when I go there and it doesn't matter where I park, the elevator on that end is going to be "closed for preventative maintenance". I think they have a lookout watching to see where I park. As luck would have it, the only working elevator was outside the Federal Court which means going through the metal detectors and security. These people are really fearful because I carry a pocket knife. They always remember me though because I ask for a receipt for it. I tell them they do not look trustworthy and that it is a lot like the fox standing guard over the chicken coop. They have gotten where they just laugh! When I did arrive in the destination office, I had a person wait on me who was different from the one that waited on me my last trip in. I had picked up all the paperwork, already filled out, at the office yet this new clerk told me it was on the wrong forms. My pulse immediately elevated. This was the same thing that had happened last trip and the other clerk had told me what forms to have the office use. This would mean a drive back across town and then trying to chase people down for signatures. Yuk! We began a discussion and thankfully I was right! She even apologized for getting me excited. She finally processed and stamped the items I had brought in and sent me on my way.

I stopped by the Post Office in South Abilene to pick up office mail for our employer. Vehicle registrations were there. $$$$$. Unless you have registered one, I don't think you would know how expensive it is for one of these large trucks. Add to this all the other taxes they pay and these big rigs should own the road! Registration costs seventeen times more than registering my S-10 pickup, annual inspections cost five times more. Heavy highway use tax is $550 per vehicle per year. Of course none of this makes a truck invisible or immune to roadside checks where the simplest equipment violation will cost you a hundred forty-one dollars. Usually this is a brake adjustment or a burned out light. This is one of those coffer fillers! I think the state uses it as a revenue generator! But that is another blog for another day!

Continuing on my way home I felt lucky and decided to try to put together the millions I need to right everyone's ship, so I whipped in and bought Mega Million and Lotto tickets. As an acquaintance once told me, "Keep swinging for the fences!" Thing is, I am the "whiff king", but if you don't take the chance you'll never know.

Final stop was to pay a utility bill and get Krl some ice cream. I had mentioned earlier how that dreaded high pressure pie sales lady had made me buy a dutch apple pie. Krl has taken a liking to it and during the night she will warm a slice of it and scoop a little ice cream on top. Me, I've had one slice, but I can just look at it and gain weight. Lord knows Krl could stand to gain some.

When I drove into the drive way I began to gather stuff to go into the house. I'm not lazy, but I like to be efficient, so I decided to leave my paperwork and ice cream in the pickup seat and walk to the mailbox. This is where my day really went into the toilet. When I exited my truck my cell phone dropped from my belt. I suppose the seat belt had dislodged it. My only reaction was to try to kick it before it hit the ground, making it a glancing blow instead of a blunt direct hit. I made contact and the phone skittered under the truck. I am so thankful our phone rep saw fit to put my phone in a protective cover and also to suggest the replacement insurance. (I guess when he looked at my old phone he decided I was hard on one. I think it was chipped on every corner and had a cracked display). So I get down on my hands and knees and crawl under the truck to retrieve my phone. Once I have it, I crawl back out and stand up and begin to clip it to my belt when I feel something brush my cheek. I'm not sure what it is and begin to try to grasp it. To be safe I do the deflective kick again. Turns out I didn't have my phone clipped good and it is on the way to the ground again. Now I'm standing there trying to figure out what is going on and why my vision is distorted when I realized one of the lens had popped out of my eye glasses. So one more trip under the pickup to get my phone and my lens. Luckily neither broke. Turns out my glasses frame hold the lens in with what looks like fishing line and it broke. The most expensive pair of glasses I have ever owned, this just shows you don't get what you pay for. Worst part is the optometrist who did these glasses for me is a hundred miles away.

I grabbed the mail and my things from the pickup and hurried to the house before I could self-destruct any more. Once inside I bolted the lock and leaned against the door, thankful that I was safe and secure, confident that if any more parts fell off me, at least they would be confined to the house.

I made a direct line to my old glasses case and put them on. I hate not being able to see. Krl has been quite entertained, looking and laughing at my large lens glasses. Hey, those are the glasses I wore when I "wooed" her! Heh, heh! Who's laughing now?

I think we turned a big corner yesterday in Krl's recovery. We'll know today. When I was back in the house I began preparation for supper. I had promised Krl the MOTHER of all suppers. She felt up to helping with the meal preparation and did some dishes. We'll know if she tried to do too much come morning!

I did oven baked barbecue chicken, Idahoan potatoes, Bush baked beans, corn on the cob and biscuits. It was probably a good thing Krl happened to be in the kitchen. I was getting the beans from the pantry and had retrieved some whole kernel corn as well when Krl asked me how many kinds of corn I was going to fix. Hey, I told you the meal menu gives me fits!

"Leftovers" note, I did fix Krl a ham and cheese omelet with toast and peach preserves. We thought they were the best yet!

Next time I'm at Larry's Better Burger I may borrow one of his restaurant order books, just to yank Krl's chain! What do you think I should charge for a three egg omelet? I had better make it up front because I doubt she'll tip me!

Some people just don't know service when they see it!

Have a day!

FATHER, surround us with YOUR angels.