Summer Returns from Vacation

 

by Pa Rock

Believer in Air-Conditioning

It's been almost two weeks since I wrote a piece for this blog bragging about the wonderfully cool summer that the Ozarks was experiencing.  I tried not to be too shameful in my boasting because it was only July, and we all knew that sooner or later summer would return. The abnormally cool weather lasted up through this past Saturday when we were inundated with heavy rains, but then on Sunday things began to heat back up and by Monday this area was under a heat advisory which is still in effect and will be at least through tomorrow evening.  The temperature has been climbing to the mid-90's F every day, and the humidity is as thick and heavy as cake frosting.

In other summer notes, a good friend who lives in Missouri wrote yesterday and said that he and his wife had just voted absentee in our state's primary election, and I know that I need to do that as well.  I always vote absentee because I will be "out of town" on Election Day - and I don't like rubbing elbows with the lowlifes who hang around the polling places. Missouri does not register voters by party, and voters are free to select the primary ballot of any party on primary election day.  I typically vote Republican in the primary because there are seldom any Democratic races in this part of the state - hell, there are seldom any Democratic candidates in this part of the state.   Also, voting in the Republican primary affords me two opportunities to vote against Jason Smith, the GOP Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee - once in the primary, and once in the general election.

(I wonder how Rep. Jason Smith, a forty-four-year-old childless bachelor who sleeps in his congressional office, feels about the JD Vance proposal to give extra votes to people who have children?)

A week from today I will be arriving in Chicago on a train from Kansas City.  I will be there four days and nights exploring the city from my base at the historic Drake Hotel in downtown Chicago, visiting with my niece and her family, and attending a performance of a musical play at the Steppenwolf Theatre based on the work of my son, Tim.   Tim has also been involved in the creation and production of the musical adaptation of his work.

I am looking forward to immersing myself in the Windy City, enjoying as much of it as I can cram into four days, and traveling in the gently rolling comfort of a coach car on America's rail system.

It's ten in the morning on Wednesday, July 31st.  Alexa says it's 86 degrees F in West Plains with an expected high of 95 degrees F.   The heat advisory remains in effect.   Summer has returned from its vacation - with a vengeance!