The End of Summer and Who Knows What Else.

While school started last week here in Dallas, summer is officially over today with Labor Day. It seems that Labor Day is also the kick off of the final run of campaigns leading up to the elections in November. I'm not done eating watermelons yet. Things are just not  working out like they have in the past.  That's not all bad. It also isn't all good, either. I'm working on some things that I hope will have me ready when all that snow comes in February.

It's been a pretty depressing summer for me and I don't get depressed. It was the heat that kept me inside more than I like and I've had three months of  high  Edison bills---high for me. I calculated with the arrival of this months bill that TXU had gotten an extra month out of me this year. An extra month! I have already located the extra blanket that I had stowed away. I'm setting the thermostat at 55 when I flip the switch from cooling to heating and I'm not moving it's time to flip back to cooling in March.

All joking aside, it has been a rough summer. I've never had cabin fever during the summertime, but I sure did this summer. It got hot a month early and even summer got an extra month of hot weather out of me. Then, I noticed that the leaves had flipped a whole month early. Then, the trees started showing signs of color change (usually follows the leaf flip) and then, the tell-tale sure thing that things were running a whole month early, the cattails that normally are harvested here about this time dealt a surprise to those that harvest them for the local florist by shedding their seed pods a whole month early. When they shed their seeds, it destroys the cattails.

So, it's been a strange year in more ways than one. We have lost people that were monuments in music and politics. We've had some really strong earthquakes all over the world that were in the 6.0 to 8.1 range and above. Wildfires and volcanoes going off were noted with unusual patterns. And---outside of the first few tropical depressions and storms that were also a month before Hurricane season started officially, there has not been a single hurricane in the Atlantic. Yes, the eastern Pacific and Central Pacific got a line of them in their neck of the woods but until just this week, there has been nothing in the Atlantic that beelines toward the Texas coast.

Which brings me to the question: What in the world is going on here on Plant Earth?  Yes, I do tend to notice the subtle changes more than most. I always have. My mom and my grandfather taught me a few things that have stuck with me and it has even helped with business over the years. It has paid off watching the weather and paying attention to it. This old world is as regular as clockwork on so many things that we notice with no exception. But, it's the other things that are so subtle that it builds and catches us by surprise. Over the years, I've gotten pretty good at reading the subtle changes and planning along with them.

And yet another sign---the scout American White Pelican is here already. This may be the injured pelican that stayed over, too. Can't id him specifically, however. Someone was telling me that they believe that there are two here. That being the case, then it would account for the injured bird and the early arrival. Usually it's October 12th

Water parks are replacing pools and the trend is that pools are probably a soon to be a dead goose.

This pool has made a start to convert. The city of Dallas opened new Water parks that are  B-I-G a week ago. They construction just completed. They were going to open until Labor Day week end. It's going to rain all Labor Day.