Dorothy, From watching how the jetstream, I think it has persistently come close enough to your end of Oklahoma that you get the gray, gloomy clouds on the edge of the cold fronts that are dropping snow and ice north of you. Way down here in southern OK we've had more sun than last year, but in the last week or so, the sun has become increasingly rare. Keith, You're welcome. I'm getting pretty concerned about y'all up there in central OK. This is the driest I remember seeing your part of the state in winter in several years. I understand exactly what you did and why. I'd probably do exactly the same thing if I was a dry as you are. When my soil gets so dry in drought periods that rainfall or sprinkler irrigation rolls downhill on the surface of the ground and isn't even absorbed, I know I've waited too late to start watering. I think it is always better, even (maybe especially) in winter to water the dry ground. If it gets too, too dry and planting time is approaching, it can be hard to keep the soil moist enough for seeds to sprout. The big mistake I made in one dry spring (may have been 2003 or 2005) is that I planted and watered sparingly waiting for rain to fall to give the seeds and plants more water. Well, rain never fell and by the time I realized that I should have been watering more heavily to get them off to a good start, the were pretty stunted and pathetic. It was a hard lesson to learn, but it made me a better gardener in succeeding dry years. Don't even mention those photos of those big old black clouds. They are fascinating but in a horrifying and very scarey type of way. I hope and pray we've learned enough about conservation and no-till commercial farming that we never put ourselves in that predicament again. Can you imagine the mass hysteria, especially on the part of the media with its 24-hour-news-cycle nowadays if we had something like that occurring? If you haven't read the book about the Dust Bowl days that I've linked below, I highly recommend it. I reread it once every 2 or 3 years to remind myself of how bad it was and what all those folks went through. We throw the word "diaster" and "catastophe" around pretty loosely nowadays, but those people who endured the Dust Bowl years really lived through a catastrophe and it lasted for years. Some of the old-timers here have told me stories about what it was like here in our county, and it wasn't pretty. One of them lived on land adjacent to ours and she tried to explain what it was like to have the big clouds of dust ruin the laundry you'd just washed, or blow through the cracks in walls, etc. into the house and cover everything with a fine layer of dust. She was a very small child then so I'm not sure how much she remembers directly and how much she remembers from hearing her folks talk about it later on their lives. I just can't imagine what it was like to endure 8 long years of catastrophe. My dad did tell me about the pure agony of watching crops fail over and over, which was a disaster for folks who essentially raised all their own food. So, if couldn't grow a crop, you couldn't eat. One thing that sticks in my memory from photos of those days is just how painfully thin everybody was. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: The Worst Hard Time

Sherri, I wasn't keeping an eye on Harper County last summer, or really on anyone else because I was at fires, often multiple fires, daily, or sometimes all night long. Last July and August are just one big blur in my mind. Without knowing how dry y'all got specifically, I'd bet you were in the upper 700s there, and very close to 800. Both the Altus area and the Durant area were the two areas I noted that were the driest on the KBDI, and they both actually exceeded 800 (which I thought was impossible) by 10 or 12 points. The driest our county got was about 770 or 780, and we had been in D4 well before we hit that point. How dry is that compared to previous droughts? The worst previous drought we'd had in our county since I learned about the KBDI was in 2005-2006, and my county topped out around 680 in that one. We never dreamed, never, ever in our wildest imaginings, we'd ever get 100 points drier than that in some future year. On our worst, hottest day, we were at a fire just on the edge of I-35 in 115 degree weather. Firefighters were dropping like flies and I was really concerned about them. A big storm was moving our way. We could tell it was going to rain. We cleared from that fire just as the storm rolled over our part of the area. We had lots of wind and lightning, and enough rain to drop our KBDI maybe 50 to 70 points the next day. That was the beginning of a downward trend in the KBDI for us. But what "gift" did the thunderstorm bring us? Lightning started fires across the river in Texas and we were called for assistance with those wildfires. lol Sometimes the thunderstorms are more harmful than helpful at times like that. I'll link today's map, and we can see what a change a couple of rainy days can make. I know that in my county we were getting close to 500 and now we're down around 100 after the rain last week and this week. That is such a relief, but we're still having grass fires. They're just slow-moving ones now and there's not many of them the last few days. In my own yard, it becomes hard to keep plants happy after we hit 500. By then our clay is hard like concrete and water just ponds on top of the ground and rolls downhill instead of soaking into the ground. It depends on the time of year, though. A KBDI of 500 in August bothers me more than a KBDI of 600 in December. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Today's KBDI Map--Lots of Improvement

Like Pesky, I'm in major pain at night; plus going through "changes" (45); sleep is not something I've been getting a lot of for a few months. I take a 5mg Melatonin; then a Lunesta an hour later. If neither of them work, I add a Tylenol PM. Going to sleep at 8:30-9 would be my ideal. I'm so exhausted by then. If I'm not allowed to go to sleep then (depends where my teen is), I will get a 2nd wind and will be up until hub's alarm clock goes off at 2:15am. I felt better going to sleep early and waking up at 5:30 - 6; but right now, that's not happening. As far as the 2nd subject that came up; I was falling asleep on the couch, usually have an icepack on my back; and when I went to the bed, I would get a 2nd wind or I was waking hub up when I got in bed. No matter how quiet I tried to be; he would always wake up. I also get up to use the bathroom, that wakes him up too. When you live with a truck driver; you have to adjust so they get enough sleep. If I fall asleep on the couch, I stay there. Sleeping after cancer - hub sweats a lot at night. There are times I have to change the bed daily. He is also very cold all of the time; I'm always hot due to flashes. We're anticipating his thyroid has been fried from radiation; but it usually takes a year before it will show up. Does it bother us that we can't always sleep together? Yes; but right now this is the hand we've been dealt.

Okay, here's my story, just a little different.... Same up to the "they took me to bed" basically. I got there around 9. Here they do a, I think it's called a split night study. If after 1/2 the night they determine you need the CPAP, they hook you up and figure out what pressure you need. Anyway they hook you up to these wires..some on the head to record how deep asleep you are/are not, some on your legs to see if you have restless legs, some on your jaw to see if you clench your teeth or grind them. Some by your eyes I think to tell when you're in REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. I had a sleep number bed even. VERY COMFY. Went right to sleep. About midnight or so, they woke me up and asked me to sleep on my back as i was NOT having any episodes. So I tried sleeping on my back. Well I didn't get a CPAP, didn't need one...so I had to stay the next day for a "nap" study. They would have me lay down every 2 hours for a 1/2 hour to see if I could fall asleep. I'm thinking ya right, I got a pretty good nights sleep, there is NO WAY I can fall asleep, not 4-5 different times. I fell asleep each time within 8 minutes. So although I don't have apnea, I do breathes very shallow, and maybe stop breathing for a bit once or twice a night. So don't be embarrassed, use this as an excuse to by a nice pair of PJ's (not a nightgown), and bathrobe. And think of it as spending the night at a hotel. When DH had his, they started trying the CPAP pressures after about 1 1/2 hours, his was so bad. He got to bring one home that next day, I had to wait a couple of weeks. We have two different kinds. If you need one, be aware too that it may take a while to find out what kind of face mask I'll call it, you will need. Make sure what ever kind you get, it works good for YOU. They will tell you that most people do NOT breathe through their mouth, and so you'll only need a nose one. What they don't take into consideration is those people like me who clench their teeth, but leave their lips open, nose ones don't work for me, I need my nose and mouth covered in order to get the benefits of my CPAP (Okay I actually have an APAP, but didn't want to confuse you) Vickey-MN