Debbie Talley
Among Friends 

Drops of water rained on us the week of the 4th. Refreshing, tiny drops of water – who would have thought that the summer could come on with such vengeance and that a week of mild rain would leave us overjoyed? But, the rain came and the rain went away. We’ve returned to the same stifling summer heat that South Texans are so familiar with. What was I thinking – that the rain would STAY?

It’s hard to believe that floods are invading some areas and tornadoes and tremors are occurring in cities which are not usually prone to such extremes in weather or shifts. It makes me wonder if global warming is becoming more apparent. Or maybe I’m just feeling the heat more than I used to (read: I’m getting old or something hormonally funky is happening).

Either way, talking about the weather is no longer so pedestrian. Rain has made it exciting and new. And rain has made my lawn exciting (not new). I didn’t know that the brown tendrils in my yard could recover and resemble green grass. My lawn doesn’t look so much like the Sahara.

Back to those areas that aren’t used to tornadoes and tremors and flooding. Flooding isn’t so hard to imagine – especially if you were around for the great flood of ’98 or more recently, the storms of last year which scared all of us for a bit. I don’t know whether it’s because of odd solar flares, strange lunar cycles, the impending doom of global warming or the ominous El Nino. It’s a good thing I don’t know what’s going on because I’m not a meteorologist. Besides, I like being right most of the time. No offense to meteorologists…that’s a tough job and they get a lot of crap when they’re wrong.

What I do know is that some strange weather juju has been cropping up, causing havoc on everyone who is not prepared to deal with it. That and gas prices are up – way up. So up that I would rather not drive much. Besides, who wants to be tooling around in the heat anyway, especially at such an expense?

So much for talking about the weather, but I’d rather not talk politics or religion and will save drugs and rock ‘n roll for another article. Trends in those areas are a little easier to track than the weather. You could say, with some truth, that “storms are brewin’” and be totally on the mark if you’re talking about religion or politics. I wish we could say so for the weather – at least once a week or so. That would be nice. That would be lovely. That would be paradise – of the lush, green lawn, beautiful tree and fresh air type. But we can’t always ask for paradise, can we? However, I could remind myself, in the famous words of Dorothy, “There’s no place like home.” Yes, Dorothy, no matter how hot or how few and far between the storms are. “There’s no place like home.”

Debbie Talley, a Randolph Ro-Hawk, UTSA and Baylor alum, can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it