57 degrees this morning!

Ahhh! That's better!

November Rose

click to enlarge

Wind Damage

For the past several days, weathermen have been predicting the chance of severe storms ushered in ahead of a cold front. They were right on the money. There were several tornado warnings and we were under a tornado watch for most of last evening. The front finally made it to Wagoner at about 11:40 last night.



I decided to get up and make sure rain wasn't blowing in, as the winds were raging. Gusts were in the 40-50 mph range. I first checked the dining room window and, sure enough, rain was coming in. As I looked in my half-sleep mode, I noticed that rain was splashing in off of my gas grill. That was odd because it is normally on the back porch/stoop and it is a good distance from the dining room window.



As the morning light came and I was able to get out and look at it, I found that, not only had it been blown from the porch, but it appears to have some damage, too. All the guts were out of it, which shouldn't be a big deal. The left hand shelf was broken off at the screws. That isn't good. Also, the OU SOONERS grill cover was GONE. We later found it about 100 ft from the grill, around the corner of the house.



It obviously could have been worse. I know that. Someone about 75 miles away had their house completely destroyed by straight winds. I just found it interesting that it messed with my grill so bad.

This morning, the skies are clear. The wind has stopped for now. It is supposed to blow pretty hard again later. The temps are crisp. It was a nice 46 degrees when I left the house at 7:25.

I hope you have a good day!

A Great Family Day

Last Saturday, we took a drive to look at the fall foliage here in NE Oklahoma. Ok, so it isn't as great as Maine or New Hampshire, but its all we got.


One of the first things we did was stop at a grocery store and buy some picnic goodies. This was a spontaneous idea, otherwise we would have brought it all from home. We found a nice State Park on Lake Tenkiller. We were all alone and had a great time.


We all enjoyed skipping rocks on the lake.


Yes, there is a little bit of color in those trees!

Frost on the pumpkin

Boy! Did it get cold last night! This morning, it was 25 degrees!

We pulled in our house plants and un-hooked the water hoses. Even at 8:30, there was thick frost still on my windshield.

Brrrr.

Our furnace is SUPPOSED to be fixed this morning. We bought a small space heater and had everyone sleep in our room last night. It was a toasty 70 degrees in there this morning!

Just in from the NWS

Statement as of 3:57 AM CDT on October 26, 2008

... Freeze watch in effect from Monday evening through Tuesday
morning...

The National Weather Service in Tulsa has issued a freeze watch...
which is in effect from Monday evening through Tuesday morning
for the following counties...

In Arkansas...
Crawford... Sebastian.

In Oklahoma...
Pushmataha... Choctaw... Pawnee... Tulsa... Rogers... Creek...
Okfuskee... Okmulgee... Wagoner... Cherokee... Muskogee... McIntosh...Sequoyah... Pittsburg... Haskell... Latimer... Le Flore.

A widespread and potentially significant freeze is expected Monday
night... with temperatures in the upper 20s to lower 30s forecast
across much of eastern Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas. Isolated
areas across far southeast Oklahoma may experience a hard freeze
during this timeframe.

A freeze watch means freezing temperatures are possible. These
conditions could kill tender vegetation. Later forecasts should be
monitored for potential freeze warnings.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++


I already scraped frost from my windshield on Saturday morning.

36 degrees!

My indoor-outdoor hi-lo memory digital thermometer registered 36 degrees for a morning low today!

Due to the fact that we couldn't get our furnace to come on, it was 62 degrees in our bedroom!

Vacation Time!

Last week, the kids had fall break and Sally and I took a couple days off and we all headed to Branson, MO! I found a great deal on a hotel, The King's Quarters, which I would highly recommend. (I am rather reluctant to recommend it, however, because I don't want my secret to get out) Call the hotel direct for a better-than-internet price. There are many, many pluses of this hotel. Sally was impressed with its cleanliness. I was impressed with the price. The only real downside was that only one of the elevators was working. It was busy during checkout on Sunday morning.


We ate well and played hard. Thursday, we played Putt-Putt and went to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum. Below is a limo with a jacuzzi.


I was a little put out with my children and putt-putt. We played twice and the second time, both kids scored THREE holes-in-one and I didn't even score one! Good for them!

What Great Weather!

Well cold front came through yesterday as expected and has left us with fantastic weather. It is 2:42 pm and 73 degrees! The humidity seems to be down a bit, the skies are blue and it was 50 degrees this morning!

Come on, autumn!

Cool Weather

Hurricane Ike came and left with very little adverse effect here in Wagoner, OK. We ended up with about 2-3 inches of rain and had an hour of winds in the 40-50 mph range.

One of the greatest "benefits" however, of this horrific storm, brought wonderfully cool weather (together with a cold front) to Oklahoma. This morning, it was 50 degrees. I actually had to use a blanket last night! The forecast for this week shows highs in the upper 70's and low 80's. Perhaps Autumn has actually arrived!

Cold Front Cools Oklahoma

A nice big, slow-moving cold front came through last night and temperatures here in Wagoner dropped. My mom said it was 56 degrees at her house at 9:30 this morning. It is 71 degrees at 1 pm here in Wagoner. It feels like fall; I hope it really is.

The forecast for the rest of the week puts high temps in the low 80's. We could have rain by Wednesday from Hurricane Ike!

Sally and Audrey are both feeling the effects of the fronts, as they both had migraines yesterday. I had to go pick up Audrey from school this morning with a bad migraine. Hopefully, it will all blow over soon!

Football Weather

(Steve H, this is for you)

Yep, the 75 wonderful degrees it is today sure makes me think that I'd love to be at a Sooner's Football game! 75 degrees on August 18! WOW!!

I remember the very first Sooner game I went to. I was a freshman at OU and I had a corner seat on the student side of the east end zone. It was right above the Sooner Schooner. I was in heaven. Except, it felt like hell. I think it was nearly 100 that day.

As the years went on, I slowly was able to get better seats, until the culmination of my time brought me a seat on the 50 yard line, 20 rows up. It was absolutely perfect. And, of course, we were National Champions that year!!!

I bought my first student season ticket for $27, I think. Wow... now THAT would be something! By my senior year, it was "up" to $53.

Yep, I could use a good dose of Sooner football in this weather. Of course, with temperatures like this (75 degrees at noon) anything would be fun!

Boomer Sooner, baby!