Hot again!

7/25/12

Back to the heat again, but at least we’ve had some rain.  We got 2.5 inches here on the farm over about 36 hours – badly needed it, too!  You should see Henry leaping over the rows of soybeans!  They're tall enough now that all I see is the tip of his tail as he trots down a row.  When I call, "O Henry!  Come on, Henry!", he bounds like a hurdler over the rows.  Boing!  Boing! Very cute.  The corn is quite tall, but I don’t know enough about how corn grows to know if it's okay. I do know that rain at the right time is critical to good kernel formation.  I’ve seen too many very brown corn stalks, particularly in southern Minnesota, to not worry about the crop.  Being a farmer would be so hard!  How do you deal with having so little control over a critical factor like weather?  And it must be heartbreaking to have livestock in the midst of a drought.  My heart goes out to ranchers who are watching their herds die of thirst or starvation, or finding themselves needing to slaughter herds and lose bloodlines they’ve spent decades developing, all for the lack of decent rains.  My dying lawn and struggling shrubs become awfully trivial in comparison…

The shootings in Aurora were mind-boggling.  I’m not a gun control fanatic, but I have a hard time understanding why anyone without evil intentions needs to own a semi-automatic assault rifle!  Guns for hunting and personal protection are one thing; military-grade assault weapons are entirely another.  The argument has been made that if someone in the theater had had a gun, maybe they would have been able to kill the shooter before he’d gotten as far as he did.  Maybe so, but if the hero had missed, would the shooter have sent a barrage right at that area, leaving more innocent spectators caught in the middle?  I don’t know anything about conceal-and-carry laws.  Would someone with a conceal permit be allowed to bring a gun into a place with one of those “guns are banned in these premises” signs posted?  Maybe if everyone was carrying a gun, fewer psychos would think they could get away with it?  What a god-awful mess….

I have been watering the tomato plants and they’re growing like crazy!  I keep waiting for some hint of color on those green balls.  There is nothing as tasty as fresh garden tomatoes!

Had to send in my laptop for repair.  I downloaded a recommended security update from Toshiba and the next morning the laptop wouldn’t boot up.  Coincidence?  Maybe, but I tell ya, I’m going to be a lot more leery of updating a perfectly fine unit from now on!  At least it’s still under warranty, so the repair shouldn’t cost me anything.  Still, $35 to send it in and not having it for at least 2 weeks is a substantial price anyway!  I’d been using it a lot lately, since sitting at the desktop computer for very long has been painful (the back issue…).  I set up the laptop on the kitchen counter and stood there – worked out quite well, but now it’s gone.  At least the back is getting better!

Is July over yet??  This has been a rough month around here… brother-in-law’s death; back meltdown; Fred’s uncle’s death; Granny’s GI bleed (and she had a small heart attack last night!  Good thing she’s already in the hospital).  Crimey!  Send good vibes this way, please J.