Living in a terrarium

I can take about 10 minutes of local TV news in the early morning (the overnight house fires, scandals, car accidents, crime!) But then, there's the weather report. There are two types: those of us who find weather reporting endlessly fascinating, and those who just take each day as it comes.

For the weather freak, the national forecast map is the highlight. Yesterday, across this huge country of ours, Seattle had the lowest high temperature (about 56) in the nation. Even Montana and North Dakota were warmer at noon. Candi and Roger-- I seldom have the chance to envy your Missoula weather!

Looking at our upper left corner of the map, you would think we're living in the frozen north, but western Washington is actually a temperate zone. The big ocean to our west keeps us cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, relatively speaking.

It's green now. Really green. When I opened the blinds this morning, it was like looking out into a misty wet terrarium. When the lawn is parched in August, what we wouldn't give for some of this rain.