Summer has been really misty so far...all two days of it.

 Ok, so I know it's not officially summer, but when school's out, that's summer for me. I have so much I want to accomplish this summer, and none of it involves curriculum or instruction. (Well, we do have VBS but that's a different type of instruction and the curriculum is already written). I plan to work on my health; lose the fifteen pounds that have crept up on me and filled my jeans to a level of uncomfortable snugness; eat lots of fruits and vegetables to make up for and undo the damage caused by months of meat and potatoes; walk two miles every day--except Sundays, when I'll allow myself a nap; and work out with the Wii Fit program.

Hey! It's a start. I've kept that resolve mightily for two whole days, initiating the program anyway--except for the Wii fit stuff. (What's holding me back is the initial report and scolding I know I'll get from the fit-and-trim and also never-aging virtual coach.)

 These pictures are from our morning walk. No, I'm not using the royal plural; My daughter Carina and my two older grandkids, Zaya and Mim, are here with me for a few days while my son-in-law scopes out their future job and home in far-away Florida.

As you can see from the pictures I've taken, it's pretty soggy around town and the mist was lovely.

We tried to get our walk in before the rain, and would have managed it, but for our taking an evasive detour into the post office, forced upon us by the rather too-friendly overtures of a lion-sized, shaggy, white dog. I say "white" presuming there was white under all that red mud. He wanted to leap upon us and was not in the least obedient to "Go home" commands. When he finally got tired of waiting for us to exit the post office and transferred his undying loyalty to a guy on a bicycle, we retraced our steps and made it home by a different route just in time to welcome the first tentative drops of warm rain.

 As you can see, although this is Oklahoma and not the "Deep South", there are pockets of Confederate loyalty--maybe a shrine for ancestors. Robert E. Lee would be touched.

 And in a nearby field grazes "Traveler" I'm sure, looking majestic in the fog.

 Something about a horse is very beautiful. I never can resist pictures of them. I have folders full of pictures like this...and I don't even ride horses.













And of course, grandchildren. I never can resist grandchildren pictures either.

After Seven Years of Drought...What is this water-stuff?

I think we can safely say the drought is over. After three weeks of intermittent storms--hail, thunder, tornadoes and what have ya, the ponds are full, the streets are running, the lakes are recovering and the citizens rejoice. It's almost wonderful.

 Oklahoma red water in the creek.

 Back yard run-offs...

 Only if you've endured a drought, will you understand posting pictures of wet pavement and puddles, however muddy.

 This little calf hardly knows how to handle the wet grass.

 The horses are sensibly staying inside, away from the foreign mud stuff.

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Of course the wheat is probably ruined and the peonies are hanging down their heads forlornly.

Some of the wheat was hailed to shreds last week. This field didn't look so bad. Hopefully, it will recover and dry out for a good harvest. It seems like farmers never get what they need out here.

 Such is life on the western plains.