Another First Day In the Rear View Mirror

Survived it again! The First Day of School! And I left the building at 5:00, too. I knew that I needed to buy milk, and pick up drinking water and then I was going to lie on the couch, and possibly not get back up till morning. But, instead I fed the KittyCat and myself, and then soaked in the hot tub to sooth my aching feet and legs. Nothing new there---aching feet and legs---that is always a feature of the first day of school.

This year, in vivid contrast to last year, we fourth grade teachers each only have 23 students, so far. WOW! That is so terrific!! We had 26 on our rosters, but only 23 have appeared. Even if we end up with the 26, that still beats last year's 32! It is absolutely amazing what a difference it makes without those extra bodies in the room. There is no way to tell if there is going to be any stand-out hoodlums this year, but there certainly is a lot of really nice children.

But, the most striking part of this day was the weather. There has been a big tropical storm churning its way north along the Baja Penninsula, sending moisture and clouds all the way into our dry desert city. On Friday, it was 106 degrees, with the whisperings of higher humidity. Sunday, big rainstorms dumped on the western side of the Las Vegas valley, creating flash floods, blocking some streets and pushing little mudslides down the hilly areas. We got a few sprinkles over here on the far eastern slope. But this morning, it was only 78 degrees, with 66% humidity. It felt like San Diego out there. The air was silky smooth and soft on my skin. It wasn't uncomfortable at all, like on Friday or Saturday, with the humidity and the temperature high enough to feel bad. It was extremely pleasant to be outside, in fact.

That is, until enough smatterings of raindrops convinced the principal to call off outside recess because of the look of the weather radar. She really can't afford to have a couple of hundred kids playing outside if a drenching storm suddenly rolls over to our side of town. So, that was unfortunate for all of us. We're hoping that tomorrow will be a little more normal for this time of year. But not too normal. That would mean the temperatures would be over 100.

Tonight, when I was out soaking, I noticed that most of the clouds are gone, (it was solid gray overcast all day) and the stars were coming out. The weather report says it'll get up into the 90's tomorrow, and the rest of the week. The tropical storm has calmed down; now there is just a large swath of rain moving up through Arizona and heading into Colorado. But, I really enjoyed that little Southern Cali day we had here. Not too warm, a little moist---all that was missing was the scent of the ocean.