The hazards of driving in the West--having tumbleweeds bounce off your car during evening rush hour. There's a heck of a wind out there, and I guess all their roots are weak, because the damned things are everywhere. I always thought they only rolled dolefully around deserted old towns, but no, major roads, giant tumbleweeds. One was taller than my hood, and I had to drive straight over the damned thing. And the one that bounced off my driver's side window was startling. Fortunately I saw it coming and realized it wasn't going to stay in its own lane.

Does anyone here live in Arkansas? I have weather questions.

Should I say something to the sports coordinator, pointing out his sexism? He has two sons, both under 6.

Yeah, I think so. If they could do two teams, would they be a boys' and a girls'? If there were an all-girl team, do you think more girls would have signed up?

No, there are 16 boys and 2 girls signed up, so only the girls were asked to play for another school. But really, any 2 kids could go somewhere else and the team would be fine. The school as a whole only has about 75 kids in the age range total, and many of the kids (boys and girls) have continued to play at their former schools (our school is a magnet and lots of kids arrive in 3rd or 4th grade), or play select soccer (like Casper's BFF.)

Internet went out for an hour. Do not like. Verizon's phone tree is useless. No, I'm not going to reboot my computer when the problem is clearly indicated at the router which says NO INTERNET.

Anyway. Glad that's over.

I've thought about doing a rain barrel, except...what am I going to water? My paltry back patch doesn't need supplementation (downspout off the main roof largely gets dumped there anyway,) getting that water to the front is problematic, and I only water there for new plantings. Heck I diverted the runoff from the porch roof to the street and that's meant a drier basement, so... I'm not going to use it to clean stuff. I can't ship it out west.

Ah, tumbleweed season. I remember having to stop on the interstate to let a herd pass. They can do more damage than just to your paint job. We had more than one a small pileup due to-seriously- poor visibility due to tumbleweeds.

They burn like whoa, but you don't do that on a windy day. They'd probably be a good fuel source, compressed, if they didn't stink so much.

I don't know the best way to navigate this, but his only asking the girls really pisses me off.

16 is OK but 18 is too many? That seems a little weird. And yeah, asking only the girls is rude. Shame about Casper quitting. Is she involved in anything else physical (dance/martial arts/wahtever)?

I have weird sunburn spots. They will fade into weird tan spots. Grrr.

On the rain barrel, my parents keep a bucket in the shower that they use to water stuff. They just empty it daily. It adds up when you aren't getting rain.

I think all the teams for the boys were divided by gender after the tiniest level. It could be because of the size of the schools. There are a couple hundred thousand kids in the school district. Most of the schools are huge.

eta: but his only asking the girls really pisses me off.

ITA

The school as a whole only has about 75 kids in the age range total, and many of the kids (boys and girls) have continued to play at their former schools (our school is a magnet and lots of kids arrive in 3rd or 4th grade), or play select soccer (like Casper's BFF.)

Ah -- I just wondered if there would be enough for a girls' team if that had been an option, but it sounds like no. You should definitely say something to the coach.

In that instance, the coach could have asked parents of every player on the team if any of them wanted to play on another team -- easy peasy. I would definitely say something.