Rain Dancers Wanted Immediately

I hate to admit this, but Al Gore might have been right--not about creating the Internet--but global warming. Maybe that's the cause of the desert conditions we've been living. Not only have we been without any noticeable precipitation for what seems like months, the temperature's been hovering between 95 and 100 degrees for the same amount of time. It's been so hot and dry, that is seems the Bloomingtonions are going through the same type of cabin fever we suffer each February. It's not pretty! Crime goes up. People are cranky and ornery and just want the season to change...or at least a bit of cloud cover. Even some schools are letting out early for the heat...just like the winters and snow storms. As you see in the photo, a gaggle of college ducklings blew up their wadding pool for a Friday afternoon swim in the middle of Dunn Meadow. (You know Dunn Meadow--the playground for students earning advanced degrees in Frisbee throwing or war protesting and the Sigma Chi intramural football team.)

Then there's the draught. While our Midwestern neighbors have so much water their creating adjunct great lakes, our ponds are so dry that fish are becoming amphibians and heading for the high grass to keep cool. My gardens have gone into a terminal state of dormancy and any grass that's green is an extra hardy strain of crab. This weekend, we sat and watched the red globs on the "Doppler 9000 Super Whopper" weather radar with fingers crossed just hoping those globs would dump on us. Instead the clouds just slid right over our little Bloomington without so much as a droplet of rain. But as folks around here say, "Stick around. The weather will change." But why is it taking so long? Maybe I'll have to break down and read "the Algore's" book after all.