August

August seems to be the lull month for my blogging. No wonder. Forty plus hours a week working in the Human Zoo they call the casino would make anyone a little tired of attempting communication. I'm leaving for a short vacation in a few hours, and just in time. I'm close to "burn out".

The whole state is under an outdoor burning ban today. The Sleeper Lake fire has been burning in the Upper Peninsula for almost two weeks. We have smelled the smoke a few times, even though the fire is about 100 miles away, across Lake Michigan. We will be travelling through the UP in a few hours, and I expect to see something of the fire. I don't know if we'll see Lake Superior this trip, but I understand that the lake level there has fallen a foot this summer alone.

Around here, it has been a drought. We finally got an inch and a half of rain in last Sunday's thunderstorm, but that rain was too late to save the corn. Whole fields are dry, crackly, and turning yellow from the ground up. Whole county is looking close to burn out.