Strange days

This has been the weirdest winter I can remember. Oklahoma always has mild days stuck in the middle of the winter -- they give us hope that this, too, shall pass. But this winter takes the prize for mild. It seems we've had more days in the 60s and 70s in the past six weeks than in any three winters combined. Take this morning -- at 8 o'clock, it was 56 degrees . . . when our normal high for the day would be in the mid-40s. Unless a cold front moves in, it'll get even warmer through the afternoon. Weird.

We're in a long drought here, too -- haven't had a decent rain since the beginning of October. Between that, the warm temps and the high winds, we've made the national news a bunch of times with our wildfires. Nearly a half million acres have burned since early December. While I normally love the smell of wood fires, the slightest hint of smoke puts me on edge these days. No fires have come near our house, but we're still antsy. There was a big one a while back outside a little town west of here -- it's about four miles from our house through the woods, and the wind was blowing in our direction. Even with the windows and doors closed, there was enough smoke inside the house to make breathing a little difficult.

When we lived on the East Coast, I kept a hurricane evacuation list handy. That night with the smoke, I lay awake, watching out the window, and came up with a fire evacuation list. The puppers come first, of course -- oh, joy! I have experienced getting all five of them into the truck at the same time, and it's like trying to herd cats! Then my list veered off onto computers, photo albums, portraits on the walls, my kiddo's art work, awards, my collection of Mardi Gras and Carnival masks . . . and Robert's thinking, "Camaro. Camaro. Camaro." Boys and their toys.

But the sky is dreary and gray right now, so I'm praying for rain. Not too much. Just a nice soaker rain that lasts . . . oh, about fifteen days. Rachel8:09 AM