A new look?

Yeah, I figured why not. Thanks to my friend over at JennaFroggy.com I finally learned how to add tabs to my blog. So later this evening, I’ll put the blog sale and a couple different tabs up there so you can keep updated.

Ugh. Today has been… Well it’s been something… Woke up this morning having to make a call to DirectTV to get our satelite installed. Yeah, that didn’t happen. They called on Saturday while I was in Wichita and I wasn’t able to confirm the appt. So it was canceled. Soonest they could come out is Sunday. GRRR.

Then we had a HUGE storm. Thunder, lightning, tons of rain. And I mean tons of rain… This estimate only shows 4-5 but NWS is saying we got around 8 inches of the wet stuff, with more to come over the next few days.

EEK! We’ve been under a major drought for the last year and a half. We’ve been getting closer to edging our way out of it, but we need all the help we can get. But 4-5 inches in an hour? Uhm. Not fun. The electricity at our water treatment plant has been knocked out and I haven’t seen a new update on it. But as of right now we’re under a water conservation emergency. They shut down all the resturants, beauty shops, barber shops, car washes, laundromats, dentists offices and any other business that uses water frequently. Pretty much the entire town is shut down, and of course, this has induced an area wide panic. People are flocking to Walmart in droves buying up all the bottled water they can get. We tend to get a little worried since 2007.

So, I’ve been updating the blog in between power blips and flashes. Working on this post between updating between posting warnings for Cirrus Weather. I hope y’all like it. I’ll tweak it further once I figure out how to do more things on it. I’m still a newbie when it comes to stuff like this, so you’ll have to bare with me.

This last weekend, we made a trek to Wichita to my niece and nephews birthday party. And of course, we had to stop and take pictures. Our first stop was in Howard, Kansas. My grandpa lived there for a few years when I was a teenager and I spent many a day walking the lonely roads of the small town, lost in my own angsty thoughts. The picture above is the old bank building, built in 1887, is now sitting derelict and in need of some major renovation work. But she’s a beauty.

Across the street is an old gas station, which I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the first in Elk County, Kansas. They’ve really cleaned it up a lot since we moved out of town a while back.

On highway 99, on the west side of the road, sits “Hubbles Rubble”, a little “art show” one of the natives puts on with his handmade creations. I always loved seeing new pieces being brought out and was pleasantly surprised to find Snoopy, and what I figure is a rattle snake?

This is a shot of the first house built in Elk County, KS. Back in like the 1800’s. I can’t find the exact date. If I ever do, which I have a book on Elk County History, I’ll update this entry.

My mom LOVES windmills. Always has. And I have been meaning to stop every single time I drive to Wichita and get a picture of this one lone windmill. This time I actually remembered. And voila! Instant Kansas Karma.

On the way home, I noticed this awesomely wicked cloud with a long rain band coming down across the prairie. I had to stop at Beaumont and get a picture of it. I love how barren and majestic this picture looks.

Oh look! More clouds!

And you guessed it. More clouds. There were some awesome mesas boiling up on our way home. Little did I know of the squall we’d be coming home to!

This is either one of the first views, or one of the last views, travelers get of the Flint Hills. Aptly nicknamed the “Kansas Ozarks”, these vast rolling hills were once home to a booming cattle industry. Now, the railroads are all gone, the cattle have moved to greener pastures (there still are cows, but not as many) and us Kansans are left with these beautifully breathtaking vistas. This one in particular was my grandpa’s favorite. He loved the way the land looked in every season.

But could you imagine how bone-weary and tired you would have been by the time you got here if you were on a wagon train? The miles of unforgiving landscape, the rocks, the canyons… The illness, the storms, the plagues that followed you everywhere back then would have been horrendous. I shudder to think how many people made the Flint Hills their final resting place.

Because no matter how beautiful the landscape may be, it can be cruel at the same time.

On our way back home, we were chasing this huge thunderhead that had formed over highway 400. We decided against going that way home, seeings that there are quite a few low water crossings between where we were and home that fill up REALLY fast during a torrential downpour. We were awarded by a gorgeous rainbow, which at one point, was a triple rainbow. I was only able to capture some fleeting images of the specter. I thought it was completely serendipitous that it just happened to end behind the old house. I was just in photographic euphoria. So excited.

I took this shot in Howard again. Notice the white rain bands at the bottom of the picture. I was entranced by these rain bands pretty much the whole way to the 160 turnoff. They looked almost tornadic for a time.

 

On the way home I found this slightly ominous cloud following behind us…

When I got out of my trusty van Kiki, I was greeted by this weird sight. I have NEVER seen a cloud like that in my lifetime. To get the full effect of it, you may need to click on the picture to get a better look at it.

After we went to eat, it started getting nasty, so of course I had to get my camera out and snap some shots. My wonderful son decided to show just how special he was while I was in the middle of taking a shot.

I can’t tell you how many pictures I took that night trying to catch the lightning. It was KILLING me. I was always a second too late. But I did manage to get one teeny tiny bolt of lightning. Meh. You take what you can get, I guess.

So that was my little bit of excitement. Not much, but enough to make me happy. I’m going to go start working on some more blog posts. Stay tuned for a review of some Dr. Who inspired polishes