GOOD MORNING USA!!!

Here's what we dealt with this afternoon about 5:30 or so. Hail - marble size hail. Didn't last too very long, but I'm glad I had my car parked in the garage and was already home from work. Last time I got caught in a hailstorm, I had dings all in my car!  We had a series of strong storms pass through east Texas and up through Arkansas & Oklahoma. It's tornado season 'round these parts, ma'am.  Well, they did have a couple of twisters touch down somewhere, but we lucked out this time around.

In other news, Princess H is leaving for Canada on Saturday from her college youth group on a mission trip. They will be working with inner city youths in the Toronto area, I think. She's looking forward to going, but I'm praying for her problem with motion sickness. She has it real bad, and I hope it doesn't flare up.

Now, it's 7 a.m. here.  I just got a comment from Kathy B. over at Spot on Cedar Pond directed at ME. Silly girl - she posted a video about moles and gophers. What a hoot she is - you must go over and say hi! We have this ongoing battle with yard varmints and I'm afraid she's ahead at the moment. Actually, I'm in a race against her husband, and now I think she's helping him out!  Hmmmmm.... was this in the rules of the game???  Hahahaha!  Looks to me like Texas does NOT have the biggest moles! At least the ones in my yard are much smaller & harder to catch - wait!  Does that mean I can have a mole handicap???  Anyway go visit her and see her funny videos!  Kathy - thanks for the belly-laugh this morning!!! (I AM glad you got another mole!)

I took a couple of photos of my MIL's camellia bush yesterday afternoon when I went by the house. It's always been beautiful and it's been blooming for awhile now. It's starting to drop its petals but it looks sorta pretty on the ground, too.

My MIL used to take a single bloom and float it in a pretty little teacup. She loved camellias. I'll never see a camellia that I don't think of that....

Ya'll have a great and wonderful and spectacular day! I gotta get ready for work, and I'm hoping to stop at one of the handful of garage sales that I've picked out of today's newspaper before I get to work!  Yes, GARAGE SALE SEASON HAS BEGUN AND IS NOW COMING INTO FULL SWING!!!  Three cheers!

No snow

OK, Jim Cantore from the Weather Channel.  You promised us  snow - now where is it?  You promised this morning while I was getting ready for work. You warned us Texans that we were definitely going to have snow.

I looked out my office windows at 5 minute intervals all day. At noon, I see a little flurry of flakes, and then it's gone. Is that ALL we're going to get?  Now the sun is out. There better be some white stuff on the ground when I wake up in the morning or comes the WHOOP.  And I know where you work, Cantore.

SNOW!!!

Howdy, how're ya'll doin' this mornin'?  Well, I'm fine as frog's hair split 4 ways!  That's purty fine! That's what my daddy always sez.

The weather man is saying it's going to SNOW here in Texas today!!!   We're so excited!!!  We hardly ever get to see snow even when there's a little bit around our area.

Here's my professional opinion, if you're interested, since I am well-versed in meteorology (JK) -

Tyler sits between two big lakes and there are more not too far off.  I think there's a thing  I made up called "the lake effect" (not like the one up in the Great Lakes area).  I don't know if these large lake bodies of water keep the temps a bit warmer or if there are air currents swirling around doing something weird to the atmosphere, but we just don't get much snow. It has to be a really good cold snow system moving through this area to get more than a dusting. 

The same is true in the tornado season. Tyler, Jacksonville, Bullard, Chapel Hill and Whitehouse sit between these two lakes.  If there's a tornado in East Texas, it's gonna come right thru here, you can bet your kids on it.  I've lived in this area all my life. We've not had the big killer tornados (thank the Lord) like in Wichita Falls or Oklahoma, but they do alot of damage nevertheless.  We've had our property/house damaged 3 different times. We had one come across our property about 5 years ago and did $40,000 worth of damage to our house.  Dadgum huge pine tree fell perpendicularly across the top of my house & crashed the roof in - flooded the entire front of the house. Hey, I got a totally new kitchen, new appliances, flooring, dining room, breakfast area, roof, gutters, septic system, trees taken out, more stuff out of it. Just wish a tornado would do some home improvements on the rest of my house! snicker-snicker! I stand outside during a storm and say, "cooooooome over here, tornado, thisaway!"

Anyway, this is tornado alley between the two lakes.  Every time we have a tornado alert, you can look on the radar map, and track just about exactly where it's gonna go - between the two lakes!

They are promising us snow today!  We'll see.... it sure would be nice to go Christmas shopping this evening with my husband in the snow and maybe take in "Blindside". I HAVE to go see that movie!

That's my professional meteorological opinion and I'm stickin' to it.