Crazy Midwesterners

Sorry this is going to be a post on weather. I know. Boring. Go on to another blog if you want! I know at least my dad will read. He's a total weather fanatic. I can remember many a fond time spent hovering under a mattress in the basement of our house in the middle of the night because my dad was listening to the weather reports of "bad" storms and got a little jumpy thinking that a tornado was going to hit our house. Aaahhh. Good times.

Ok, back to the present. Today the Kansas weather was wacky again. It has been unseasonably warm here for the middle of January. Usually we are all bundled up in our mittens and hats and scarves huddling together to stave off the bitter cold. The wind is also usually the worst. Here in this part of Kansas saying it's windy takes on a whole other meaning than what the rest of the country understands what "windy" means. A slight wind means that it's about 15-25 mph. When it gets really windy here the gusts can be measured up to 60 mph. It's really not that uncommon to go to Wal-Mart, which is located at the edge of town and thus much windier than in town, and be literally pushed out of place by the wind. This is also where tumbleweed are a common sight. I once went through a tumbleweed "storm". I stopped counting after about the 40th tumbleweed came across the road.

I digress again!!! So today was very warm for January and Kansas. The temperature was up to 57 balmy degrees when I saw an older gentleman walking by our house in shorts!!!!! He was also wearing a sweater which really doesn't make a lot of sense, but whatever. I know that my sister in Florida would be turning on their fireplace (if they had one) if it were 57 degrees there (which it probably was this morning). It will happen again (seeing people in shorts in temperatures under 60 degrees). Mark my words, come March and April whenever the temperature gets above 45 degrees everyone will be wearing shorts and flip flops again acting like its 80 degrees and I just might be one of them!