The Third Cup

'Blow ye winds!'

Hi neighbors. Autumn is here and with it all the pollen, allergies, and now straw itch mites! Will it never end? Killer bees have hit Oklahoma. I remember being told they would never get out of Texas. Actually, I remember being assured they would never get further north than Mexico. Someone underestimated killer bees.

The old saying, "It's an ill wind that blows no good," or something like that must be true. It seems we are getting lots of odd things blown our way since the weather patterns have given us El Nino one year, La Nina the next, and now back-to-back hurricanes.

Maybe you recall a few years ago when El Nino blew all those song birds from Mexico and South America our way. That wasn't so bad. I enjoyed the new tree top "top ten" songs.

I don't pretend to know what climatic changes affect our weather. I do understand that environmental changes all over the earth do appear to influence the weather.

Maybe I it's just my poor memory, but it seems our weather is "leveling out" here in Vernon County. The winter's aren't as severe and the summers not as hot. Maybe that was just this last year and I've already forgotten everything before that. It's a nice thought though. I hope that's the case.

With the price of oil, the ecological pressure to not burn wood nor coal, I hope the winter stays mild this year too.

On television once I saw where Scandinavia is using hot spring water to warm their cities. Why didn't we think of that? Don't we have any thermal springs in America? In Missouri? The old theater in Stockton used to be cooled by the cave the town is built on. Why can't we use cave air for all the air-conditioning in Missouri? We have as many caves as any where I imagine.

Why can't we herd all those breathing, belching and flatus passing cows into small barns, trap all that methane gas, and use it for fuel instead of letting it burn a hole in the ozone layer? It seems there should be a better way to do things than relying on Middle East oil. Of course we use a lot of plastic, and it's made from oil. I don't think the medical profession could continue without plastic.

My cousin sent me an email the other day listing all those things we remember that our children never heard of -- and vice versa. I can't remember all the things listed, but I can make my own list. You could too if you sat down to do it.

Remember television without MTV or CNN? Another new change blown in on the wind is the television and radio shows from other countries. I remember getting a radio station from Mexico when I was a teen listening to my little transistor radio in bed at night. The year I took Spanish I tried to keep up with the announcer's patter, but it was pretty hopeless. He just talked too quickly...or I translated too slowly! My son watches only certain channels on television. He couldn't understand how we survived without MTV or today's "specialized" networks. I explained that we didn't spend a lot of time watching television. He said he understood why.

Maybe one thing feeds off another. Logically, if the shows were really bad, people would watch less television.

That theory doesn't hold up under use though. We've all seen some pretty dreadful shows pick up an audience. So who knows what it would take to get people away from the screens and into the yard? A really strong wind maybe? Maybe it isn't just the changes in the environment that keep the hurricanes blowing and the jet stream and El Nino messing up transmissions across the nation.

Maybe it's some natural phenomenon on a grander scale. Evolution blending mankind and machine. Perhaps the only reason we are having such weather is to blow the television sets out of our houses. Or more easily to blow us out of them! The next generation of super heroes could be people who have the strength to lay down their remotes, pick up their feet and take a walk away from piped in music and "reality" television. Maybe we should look for reality outside our windows instead of within a television's lighted screen.

Until the next time friends remember; perhaps only you can prevent hurricanes and other natural disasters. Stop listening to MTV and go hear the songs of a few birds. If you don't belief you can change the world, go out and look at it today, and again tomorrow. Watch for changes, you'll see them.