'You never get anything right,' complained the teacher. 'What kind of job do you think you'll get when you leave school ?' 'Well, I want to be the weather girl on TV.'

No wonder a dying calf bawls!

It is Tuesday, April 17, 2012, and hopefully after today the fallout from Tax Day will begin to subside. When I would find a reason to cry as a youngster, my grandfather would observe that I was bawling like a dying calf in a hailstorm. No. I have never seen or heard the object of his example but it did convey the meaning that I was perhaps overdoing it. I know. Hail and bawling combined. Real noisy. Today's culture isn't tuned in to such crude observations. I worked with a lady from back East who could hardly stand the euphemism about the parent declaring if the child didn't straighten up she would pinch their head off. She considered the thought alone to be cruel and inhumane treatment. She had better be glad she didn't grow up where my momma lived. By the way, we never thought for a moment that our mom was going to somehow squeeze our heads so hard they would fall off. Who ever heard tell? But, we absolutely knew that she meant business! Well, back to the subject of hailstorms. Last Thursday the folks up in Amarillo had plenty of reason to be loudly responding, you know like that calf deal, to a freak hailstorm. How freaky was it? Nickle sized hail (marble size) in up to four feet drifts! Now that's what I call a hailstorm! They will be sorting out the damage from this one for some time. In Amarillo, the actual accumulation was a few inches, but I did read about a huge one in Kansas in 1959 where a total of 18 inches accumulated on the level. It took weeks for it to melt. Thanks for tuning in to this public service announcement from the weather desk here at the blogger ranch studios.

There was a common theme from the termite episode: Time to re-treat. Meaning: We need to have the house treated again. The last fellow said he couldn't guarantee there weren't some of those little gnawing critters still around and he thought he may have found an entry point outside near the deck. This sounds like a prudent approach and we are still thankful that thus far we haven't discovered any major structural damage. We most likely will do some minor stuff in that one room but all in all, we are thankful they swarmed and we (they) saw them and that led to the checking process along with the panic and awe of the checkers. My wife's brother has had quite a bit of experience dealing with these pests. His theory is that they most likely chose that particular place for a reason and his experience tells him there may be more around, somewhere. At any rate, the treatments available seem to have improved in how they work and in how long they last. We will move forward with this project and hope that soon the wife will quit running out of the room when that commercial comes on that shows that oversized larvae looking termite with the huge teeth chewing off some two-by-fours. When you remove some sheet rock and they fly all over the place, well, it did make an impression on her. I wasn't there but I can tell it is still very fresh on her mind. This new chemical is supposed to be very effective and it lasts up to 15 years. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what the technician meant when he said it should be the last treatment we would ever need done on that house. I actually think he was looking at me when he said that. What? I now have to deal with termite people who do prophetic predictions on the side?

We all joke about the weather but we also know that it can be a no joking matter. The recent tornado activity in the middle section of our 48 contiguous states has been bewildering and sorrowful. Reading about the deaths of folks taken in the night by a huge tornado is very sad indeed. Seeing the scenes of destruction is about as sobering as it gets. Our hearts, our thoughts, and our prayers go out to those impacted by these huge storms. We just never know. But we are able to be ready. That's the message of God to His created human family Be ready. This life is uncertain because we live in a sin cursed and fallen world. I was reading about some of the unusual ways that people have met their end. A 28 year old veterinarian died from an explosion while treating a horse in hyperbaric chamber. The horse kicked and its hoof made a spark on the side of the unit triggering the explosion. A 35 year old Hispanic died from stab wounds received during a cockfight. One of the birds that had a knife blade attached stabbed him in the leg cutting a main artery. An elderly gentleman died after falling from his stepladder and landing upside down in a bucket of water. He actually drowned. There were dozens listed but I will leave you with this one. A twenty five year old lady driving down the road near Ontario, Canada was hit and killed by a flying bear. The bear had been hit by another car sending it airborne and the bear came through her windshield killing her instantly. Oddities, and even unthinkable, but yet the results for them all were final. I always advise everyone including me to get and to keep their house in order when it comes to their standing with God because we never know when, like the termite fellow said, it will be the very last time we do something. Amen.    .....More later.