Ugh.

The electricity went off last night. Dinner was already served, so that was not an ordeal, but...WHAT ABOUT THE AC?! I can't live, I don't think, without air conditioning. And the guys, that spouse o' mine and the boy, would need showers after raising the roof (quite literally) on the chicken house, and running 5-10 miles, respectively. We have a well. And a pump to said well, electrically-run. Fortunately, about 9:00 pm, the power kicked on (yay for me: I was looking up the phone number for the Fairfield Inn.)

I asked that spouse o' mine, what were his ancestors thinking, settling in hot hot Nebraska, from Sweden and Norway? He countered with, what were my Dutch and German ancestors thinking, settling in even hot and hotter Oklahoma, from the Netherlands and Germany?

This past weekend, two daughters, a boyfriend of one said daughter, and I were driving back to Kansas from Oklahoma. We stopped at a roadside interest, called the "Little House on the Prairie" or something akin. It was on the property formerly owned by the Ingalls family (read: Little House on the Prairie series, both in book form and a TV series.) We have always passed by this roadside interest, but that day I was tired and irritable. So I threw 3 college kids out the car door and ambled out myself.

After looking at the log cabin and a hitching post and a schoolhouse and an ancient loo, I looked out to the horizon. Yep, it looked just like mine back in Wabaunsee County. Nothing special here. Same grass, same heat, same wind. I LOVED the Little House on the Prairie books. I loved them when I read them as a child, and then reacquainted myself with them when my kids began reading them. The TV series was catch & miss, but I enjoyed it tremendously.

But standing out on the windy, hot prairie a weekend ago, I can verify that there is no romance in the prairie in the summertime. I don't recall EVER seeing Michael Landon (Pa) perspiring, I don't recall Karen Grassle (Carolyn) ever EVER having a stray hair flying. (My life? ALWAYS looking like the wrath of Medusa.) The TV series of Little House on the Prairie was filmed on Big Sky Ranch at Simi Valley, CA. I'll bet those Californians have never felt the heat and wind of the REAL prairie, the blowdrier of heaven.

This morning there was absolute calm. The dew on the grass was as heavy as I've ever seen it, and there was a fog that stayed put even after the sun rose. A harbinger of heat to come...