Gary,
A few comments in response to Phyllis McKay’s pending trip to our nation’s Capitol.I doubt she will see much relief from the hot and humid weather this area has had so far this summer.  Though Alice and I live almost two hundred miles south of the District now, our weather is very much the same.  And this summer has had some of the hottest days ever recorded for this area.  We have had several days where it was well over one hundred degrees and as always out here very humid.  This year, as opposed to most years, Washington DC has often been at the very center of hot air masses and temperatures further south (like Atlanta) have actually been several degrees cooler.

The biggest factor for most people who come here from the upper plains (to include North Dakota) is not the temperatures, but the suffocating and oppressive humidity.  Every year there are days when ND has hotter temperatures than out here, but the main difference is our humidity.

Just last weekend in our local Roanoke Rapids newspaper (The Daily Herald) they had an article on the retirement of the top person in their type setting department ( I don’t recall either his name or his exact title).  He had been in that job here for 26 years.  Anyway, as it turns out, this gentleman had originally come from Williston, ND.  In the article, he stated that he does not miss the cold ND winters and he has absolutely no plans or desires to move back to ND in his retirement years.  But he also said the biggest thing for him to get used to when he first came out here (and that he still has trouble with) was the oppressive humidity that just seems to be here day after day after day all summer long.  I completely agree with him.  I love much of what the mid Atlantic area offers, but the stifling humidity is NOT one of them.

Anyway, I hope Phyllis and her your granddaughter have a great visit to our nation’s Capitol and get to see many of the historical and commemorative sites.  They have a bus service where if you buy the tickets you can ride from site to site and take as much time as you want at each site.  The buses run about every 20 minutes or so, so if you miss one, just wait 20 minutes (or whatever the period is) and another will be coming.  Some of the sites included on this service are the Arlington National Cemetery, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Smithsonian Museum (as well as several other museums) the Capitol, the Washington Monument, Mount Vernon and many more sites.

Finally, just a short personal story.  Two days ago (Wednesday) it was another hot and humid day out here with temperatures up in the upper nineties.  We had a thunder cloud blow up (they often pop up out of nowhere in this hot, humid weather) and it lightninged and thundered for several minutes with only a sprinkle or two of rain.  Then it seemed to be dissipating as the lightning and thunder died out.  But, the sprinkles we did get reminded me that the paper was probably out by the mailbox and if it started raining any harder it would ruin the paper.  So, given that the storm seemed to be dissipating, I walked out to the mail box.  As I approached the mailbox it again lightninged to the north but as it took a few seconds for the thunder to arrive, I wasn’t too concerned.  Then as I reached into the mailbox to get the mail it lightninged again and this one was a lot closer with only a second or two before the thunder arrived.  This spooked me a little and I started to hurry to get the mail and to pick up the news paper and head back to the house.  Our driveway is rather long (150 feet or so) and I had gotten to within about twenty feet of the house when everything got real bright and instantly the thunder clap hit.  I instinctively ducked (don’t know why I thought that would help) and really thought I was being struck.  Fortunately, it did not strike me, but I knew it had been very, very close!  I have never really been afraid of lightning, but do have a healthy respect for it, and normally take the appropriate actions to protect myself.  In this case it seemed everything was pretty much over with so I really never thought of it as a dangerous situation.  Clearly I was wrong.  I must say I was relieved to get to the house (and inside) and took several minutes to calm down.

About two hours later Alice went out for a short walk and almost as soon as she left the house she came back in and asked me it I knew where that bolt of lightning had struck.  I said “No, but I know it was awfully close.”  So she said “I know where.”  Anyway, the yard to our right is a mostly cleared, vacant lot.  But it still has a few huge, very tall and stately oak trees on it (some of them were blown down in last summer’s hurricane).  That bolt of lightning (that I thought was striking me) struck the top of one of those oak trees (probably a hundred feet tall) and split the tree all the way to the ground (though the tree is still standing) and blew off about half of the bark.  The tree was on the opposite side of the lot from our house, but some of the bark was laying all over our yard.  Fortunately, our driveway in on the opposite side our yard from the vacant lot, so the tree was actually about 150 feet from me.  But, that is still too close for comfort!  Guess I’ll  be even more respectful of lightning in the future.
Keith Pladson (66)

 

 

 

And tomorrow is Toni’s and yours!!!! Happy birthday gentle and kind giant – not necessarily physically but most definitely emotionally. As Bernadette already knows. She is a very lucky woman! So proud that you’re from Dunseith and part of so many of our lives.

Thank you Brenda for the nice kind words.

 

 

 

 

 

 

According  to a news report, a certain private Catholic school was recently faced with a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine provided it was of a natural or neutral skin tone, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.Every night the maintenance man would remove them and the next day the girls would put them back. Finally the principal, Sister Mary, decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night (you can just imagine the yawns from the little princesses).

To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, Sister Paschal asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required. He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it.

Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.

There are teachers….. And then there are educators