cooler by the lake

Enron's Jeffrey Skilling's less evil brother Tom loves to talk about the weather. I've never seen another meteorologist squeeze the most out of his portion of a mostly useless hourlong evening newscast. I find his ramblings boring on TV, but I don't mind them in print. He contributes to a weather blog on WGN's website.

The current weather in Chicago has been on my mind. My yard has seen barely enough rain to sustain itself. We're in the midst of a hot-humid, hit-or-miss-storm weather pattern that reminds me of a typical North Texas summer. (North Texas is not to be confused with the Panhandle.) The pattern shows no immediate signs of changing. North Texas weather was one of the reasons I left Dallas for the colder Chicago almost seven years ago.

I can't complain too much. Last summer was very mild, and the snow hasn't messed with my head too much. The protracted hard freezing weather of earlier this year did get to me a little bit.

I just want rain -- I can take the heat. I don't think I've heard my sump pump in at least two weeks. I don't want to water the yard myself, but I can't help but worry about what a protracted drought did to the foundation of my parents' house several years ago, even if the circumstances are different. In this case, even excessive watering didn't help.

Ah, forget it. I'll just enjoy my house and family instead.