Drought?

During the week Carol often walks at the local mall in the mornings.

Why? Well, for exercise. It keeps her slim and trim. But I think there's another reason -- it's her chance to interact with other people who walk at the same time.

This arrangement offers several advantanges. If she wants to slow down and walk along with others and visit, she can. But if she'd rather not, or if the subject matter is unpleasant, she can excuse herself and walk faster.

She knows by first name most of the folks who walk at about the same time as she does each morning. And she knows their personalities. All are harmless, but some are "cute," some "jerks," and some are just "nice." Most are older than she is.

One of the "cute" ones, an older man, spoke to her this morning. She slowed her pace to match his and engaged in conversation. After normal pleasantries, he mentioned the drought we're experiencing.

Carol wasn't sure she had heard him correctly, so asked him to repeat what he'd said.

He said, "So, what do you think about this drought?"

She wondered if he was getting senile. (If you didn't read my last post, scroll down now and look at the pictures from Saturday!) It's been a VERY wet spring and summer thus far. We haven't had as much rain as SOME parts of Texas, but we have had some flooding, even here.

The silence between them stretched on, as Carol couldn't figure out how to respond.

Then she saw the twinkle in his eye. He deadpanned, "I mean, it's been almost 20 hours since the last drop fell. What are we going to do?"

Later -- MUCH later, as is always the way -- she realized she should have told him that maybe we need to use the dry spell to make some more progress on the ark we're building.

Oh, and for those of you who asked me to send some of this rain your way, I'm working on it. Honest!