Yikes. Stay as dry as possible, folks.

Sumi- Be careful

Sue- did she move up to "professional" from "support staff". Because I get really cranky about substitute phone answering because of that sometimes.

I hope you get home all right, sumi!!

IcompletelyON, Jon likes carrots. Well, maybe not, but carrots likes Jon!

The drought level here has been declared "exceptional," which sounds much more fun than it is. Exceptional is meteorology-speak for 100-year drought. We're neck and neck with the worst recorded drought in Georgia. Weather records: never a good thing. It's already the hottest August on record, and we're looking forward to another extra-crispy day. The two things are apparently related; the system that's stuck over the southeast is blocking the rain from going anywhere, so the midwest gets floods and we get the surface of the moon.

When I was in Alabama earlier this month, it was above 100F every day I was there. I commented to my mom that I didn't think I'd experienced that much triple-digit heat in my entire 18 years growing up there in the 1970's and 80's, and she agreed. That kind of heat used to be almost unheard of. It was much more low to mid-90's with high humidity, which isn't exactly pleasant but also doesn't sap all your energy the instant you walk out the door. IIRC Birmingham has had less than half the average amount of rain for the year thus far. On top of the punishing heat, the air quality is terrible. So, yeah, I'd love to send some rain their way.

Oh dear. One of my supervisors just got in and informed me that his neighborhood was thrashed, and he doesn't live very far from me. I got lucky! I mean, at 1am last night it sounded like bombs were going off overhead, but my immediately neighborhood didn't take any real damage.

Sue- did she move up to "professional" from "support staff". Because I get really cranky about substitute phone answering because of that sometimes.

Yeah she did, and that's one of the reasons why she's still asked to answer phones. And I totally understand her frustration there. There's lots of crap going on there...like the secretaries often tell, not ask, people to cover phones. And a couple of sections have decided that their staff should not have to answer phones, and that sticks in her craw. (Our section, which is just the two of us, get dumped on most.) But at the same time, wigging on the secretary is not the greatest response to her frustration.

Tom Skilling was on the radio this morning, talking about how the summers have been experiencing fewer intensely hot days here in the upper Midwest (fewer 100+ days), but much warmer evenings, so that the overall average for the summer has increased. Also, there's apparently a study going on at Northern Illinois University about whether the increase in the corn crop is affecting the humidity levels in the air (each acre of corn pumps X amount of water into the atmosphere that I can't remember offhand, but it was a lot, and we've got a bumper harvest this year).

this has been a crazy ass summer weather wise. we're in a drought and all around us are people flooding. not to mention the 100 + temperatures almost the whole month of august.

my best friend was trying to fly out of chicago to austin last night and they cancelled her flight and couldn't promise her one out until saturday. so she had to cancel her trip.

But at the same time, wigging on the secretary is not the greatest response to her frustration.

No, it isn't. I usually just remind my boss that I am frustrated that other people don't have to do it, and then I go ahead and do it. Mine isn't usually for Lunch hour, though, it is usually for one or two weeks vacation in another department, so I really can't get any of my own work done, and my boss is just as frustrated as I am, because she has to do my work!

Meanwhile, we had one of the coldest August days ever this week. [link]