Dog Days of February

It's the "Dog Days of February!" I'm so bored with it that I could do what this guy is doing -

- but where ya gonna find a watermelon in February??????

The walls have been closing in a lot lately. A couple days ago I visited the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory in Ft. Wayne. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I'm pretty sure I didn't see it. This time of year may not be the best time to visit places like this unless they are having a show. The high point of that trip was at the RR crossing in Edgerton. I counted 45 cars carrying 3 John Deere farm tractors. All the cars had 3 tractors except 5 which had 2 and a stack to tires on them. It was short train - only 46 cars. Stuff like that doesn't make a good trip. If the "Dog Days of Feb." have gotten to you, you know exactly how I'm feeling.

You might be thinking, "why doesn't he do volunteer work?" I just joined my third volunteer organization. I'm a trained weather spotter for the National Weather Service. I really don't want to have to do anything for them except go to the annual training session each March. The training sessions are very informative. The NWS uses weather spotter info when determining what type of watch or warning to put out. Radar can't see everything. You might consider attending a training session near you. There is no obligation and the info is very useful.

I also belong to the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) out of Defiance County. Williams County doesn't have one. That is another organization you hope doensn't need help. I have filled sand bags twice and missed a phone call to go to Findlay/Ottawa floods back in '07.

I just joined the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network. I'm the second person in the county to set up reporting equipment. I've gone through the online training and since it rained today I gotta get up and report the rainfall totals.

Have no idea how I went from the boring dog days of February to weather reporting, but that is the name of the blog. Sorry no pictures this time.