Just rambling
With all the talk in recent weeks of what to do during a terrorist attack it's been giving me nightmares.
I woke up from a fitful sleep one night last week after dreaming I looked out the front window of our home and I saw dive bombers, flying in formation, heading straight for our house. It was just like watching film footage from Pearl Harbor.
I immediately walked to the front window, found it wasn't true, breathed a sigh of relief, checked on my son and went back to bed.
I think I'm going to have to quit watching news reports for a while.
Thursday night, while it was still very temperate outside for February, I woke up from sleep smelling an aroma that was either coffee brewing or a skunk. Since I'm the only coffee drinker in the house and I wasn't making coffee, I quickly determined a skunk must be lurking nearby.
The thought crossed my mind that perhaps if I sealed off the house with plastic sheeting and duct tape it might block out the skunk smell. After all it's supposed to protect you from chemical agents, right? Surely, the aroma eminating from a skunk would qualify as some type of chemical agent.
I have my doubts whether anything can keep out skunk smell.
Anyhow, another rambling thought. How come we're such a trashy nation? And no, I'm not talking about a lack of morals, although that could be the fodder of a yet another column. What I'm talking about is the amount of trash on any given roadway, just about anywhere.
We had to take a trip to western Kansas Friday, and I noticed ridiculous amounts of trash in the ditches and median of both I-35 and I-70. The miles between McPherson and Salina on I-35 were particularly bad. Untold numbers of cups, cartons, sacks and wrappers from fast food places, portions of tires, beer bottles and cartons, vodka bottles. Most of what I saw were empty alcohol containers.
It kind of gives the impression there are many people on the roadways who are drinking alcohol and driving.
We cut short our trip to western Kansas based on the forecasts of heavy snow. It's such a long trip out to Osborne County for Gary and I to visit both our families, that once we're there we like some time to recover before hitting the road again. But that wasn't to be during this trip. In the back of my mind, I really didn't think it would actually snow, but snow, ice-packed roads scare me to death.
This time the forecasters were right, and I was glad we came home Saturday night. It's much nicer to watch the snow fall from the comfort of your living room, than from the windshield of a van.
— KATHY HAGEMAN
