We went away for the 4th of July weekend, and when I got back our rain gauge said we received 2.2 inches. I was excited. And then we had four more days of rain here in my part of Clayton and we tacked on another 3.8 inches!!! Not too mention we got .9 inches of rain the last day of June and the first day of July combined!! Very exciting. We really needed it because we only got an inch of rain in June. It seems that all the storms that reach Raleigh, don't come here and vice-versa. Oh Cameron, I feel for your girlie. The dog we had growing up, used to be just terrified of the the thunder also. She used to try and crawl under you wherever you were sitting and burrow herself under you. Did I mention that she was a full 70 lb lab??

LL Bean's holiday commercial ("The snow is coming down on this New England town...") makes the NE seems so charming! And then I think about being cold all of the time...it makes 90/90 summers (90 F, 90% humidity) seem downright bearable. For those of you who dream of moving south, you'll feel right at home here in the NC Piedmont. We have a HUGE influx of folks from NJ and NY! Yes, our summers are hot and humid, but the weather is delightful from October through June. Of course, we're getting a bit of that cold air here as well -- our low on Friday night is forecast to be around 10 F (very unusual), so I too am taking precautions with my figs and other potted plants. Good luck to everyone... As for the global warming comments, the shift to the "climate change" label hardly qualifies as vacillation. Rather, it better reflects the reality of what we face -- an overall, average warming trend that is likely to make weather a whole lot weirder (the key here is "weather" as opposed to "climate" -- there's a big difference). Some areas will be warmer, some colder, some drier, and some wetter. The climate will be warmer, but local weather may be anything but.

here is a note about bringing figs out of dormancy sooner in cold areas.i'm in buffalo, ny.and the last frost here is around memorial day. last year i had a bunch of small fig plants in my basement that i was afraid they would die in the cold. they broke dormancy early around first week of april. even with lights or a window they the new growth grew thin and week and a poor yellow color. then when it was time to bring them out , i had to harden then but within two weeks all the leaves fell off the growth from indoors. eventual it all grew back but i had spagehti branches and the figs grew late and never ripened. so i wouldn't suggest breaking the early dormancy. good luck with all atemps. kevin

Oh, no Susan--they come home for the night. He walked in at 11:30 last night, and was out of the house before 7 this morning. Today will be the same--they're working at the remote location until about 10 tonight, then he has to drive about an hour and a half back to his office, then it's only a few minutes to our house, thank goodness. At least they let them do their commuting in company cars, on company time. But the nice thing yesterday was that the office they're working out of supplied them with all meals--really NICE catered meals. Even a carving station (turkey and ham) at dinnertime. Sounded like he ate pretty well. Don't know if that's the same today. As to teams from out of state? I haven't heard one way or the other--usually that's the case, though. And sometimes, the guys like DH (meter readers, bill collectors, office workers) are used as 'navigators' to help the out-of-state guys find their way. Yesterday, DH was hanging out by some downed wires, making sure no one walked or drove over them. There are so many that the crews haven't gotten to all of them yet, so they're having guys 'guard' them. Won't know what he was doing today until, oh--closer to midnight? Well, can't complain--his OT for yesterday and today is 2/3 of a mortgage payment. One more day like these and it would pay for the whole month! Although, I'm hoping this won't keep up too much longer--it's rough for a 61 year old man to work 16+ hour days.