Another Grey Day

Another very grey overcast day has arrived. I have really gotten used to the low humidity levels here in Colorado - yesterday, our high was 58 degrees, but with 65% humidity - and I was freezing! The only time I felt warm was in the middle of walking the Irish kids, when the sun peeked out for a couple of minutes and warmed the shoulders and back of my winter jacket. It's snowing up above 9,000 feet, and that is expected to continue through tomorrow. If we get anything, it will be rain. I actually want rain.... I just hate having these gloomy days with barely a glimpse of sunshine and then we don't get any precipitation at all.

I feel deeply for the folks in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. The wildfires in OK and TX are horrendous, especially considering that several are suspected to have started by the hands of man. And Mother Nature has not been nice to the folks and land in the other two states, either. I got home late from my walk this morning, as I was drawn into a conversation regarding genealogy with the barrista at Starbucks - and if you know me, you know that I do not drink coffee! Janay had had me pointed out as a person to talk to for information on computer databases for use in tracing one's history. It turns out that she has a fascinating family - Native American, African-American, Hispanic, French, Irish, and she doesn't know what else. I told her that if she and her grandfather hit a spot where they're stuck, I'd be happy to help do a little digging myself. Plus, one set of her grandparents came from orphanages...

I was in a hurry yesterday, and I grabbed the next book on my "to read" pile without looking at it; so, Sarah, I am about half-way through reading Amazonia by James Rollins, rather than Sandstorm. But I can tell you right now that James Rollins is a fantastic writer! I was "grabbed" and drawn into the story before I had read half of a page. I can't wait to begin the Sigma Series! And a new book is due out in June! Oh, boy!!!... My kits are sitting inside - one on the desk, and the other on the cat tree. Lovey is watching the morning news over my shoulder, while Banichi is watching in hope of birds or squirrels. The one piece of news that I found intriguing today was the find of a cache of hunting tools that has been carbon dated as 14,000 years old. Scientists unearthed the prehistoric tools in a field at Howburn Farm, Elsrickle, South Lanarkshire, in the southern part of Scotland. It places hunters in the Midlands 3,000 years earlier than previous finds, and ties in with a reindeer-hunting culture from Germany.