Interesting...

After so many cold mornings this week, I find myself not wanting to go one last time to Mom and Dads to feed the horses for them.   I hate the cold.  Leaving the warm house is hard when my butt hits the old cold seat of the truck,  It takes exactly one mile before I can turn on the heater to start warming up. The good thing is that they are coming home today so I won't have to make an evening trip too.  Don't get me wrong, I am glad they are around so it's really not a problem.  My first surprise is how much warmer it is today.  37 degrees.  The small warm front came through during the night.  Nice.  As I am leaving town, I think about what someone said to me this week.  They asked me "why in the world do you like Kansas when you come from the West Coast and the beaches?"  Well, as I drive I love seeing all the winter wheat neatly out in the fields along the roadside.  Not row after row of houses never ending.  It looks like planted grass all the same height and huge blankets of green among the brown dead grasses in the ditches.  I saw a female woodpecker by the side of the road, and noticed that around a wooded pasture the poles have large purple bands painted on them.  (unprinted signs that there is NO hunting)  There just happens to be a rather large flock of turkeys that live there.  Nice, they are safe inside that area.  It is neat to see the huge Toms spreading their tails and bobbing their heads as they mingle with the hens some mornings.  I love seeing the wildlife.  Thing number two I love about Kansas.

Cotton harvest is winding up too.  There are little cotton bolls all along the road.  Kind of like crumbs of bread leading you on an adventure should you choose to try it.  If you were to follow them you would end up at the cotton gin.  It could be a game with kids.  See who could follow the trail of cotton.  You would be led down dirt roads, highways and then you would see a rather large building with heaping piles of cotton seeds alongside the huge cotton bales.  As I am mulling this over, HEY...what in the heck is in the ditch?  Well bless Bess, it's a couch.  Now that got there sometime between 5pm yesterday and 8 am this morning.  They knew they lost it too.  All the cushions are piled on the seat.  Now why would you not pick it up and dispose of it yourself?  All it needs is the "free" sign on it and it would be like the big city.  Crap everywhere it's not supposed to be.  They could have at least taken it a couple miles to the landfill gate and dropped it there.  Guess the state will haul it off.  That leads me to the thought they should be taking prisoners out in the fresh air to pick up the ditches.  They can't run too far and there is not much cover to hide them if they want to run.  It's a win win situation.  They get some much needed exercise and the ditches lose some litter.  They could hire some of the guys from the feed lot to sit on their horses and if anyone wanted to run off they could rope them and drag them back.  Less chains on the prisoners would mean they could work faster and cover more ground.

Reality would go more like this, someone would get chaffed from the shackle's, whine and get compensation.  Then I would have to pay twice.  Once to keep them fed,watered, entertained with cable TV, sports equipment and a warm place to hang out.  Then they would seek compensation for being hurt on a job.  No matter they broke the law to get there in the first place.  Ah, I say make them work for their food.  Thats what I have to do.

As I head home I notice how amazing the clouds are this morning.  The have ripples in them like the beaches when the tide goes out.  Sometimes the sand gets mounded up like rows in the fields.  I think I need a beach fix.  Maybe this is my sign I can do that this summer.  When it's warmer, and the days are longer.  Reason number three I like Kansas.  We have amazing sunsets and sunrises.   These are just 3 reasons I like Kansas.  I have hundreds.  It's not all flatland here either.  Around my house it's mostly flatter areas.  I like that.  I can see the storms building up and tornados coming.

Guess I will just have to be dreaming of the beaches this summer.   I think the clouds were a sign I will be seeing them soon.  Hope so...