Time To Saddle Up, Nature Showing Signs of Life

What a weather pattern it has been! We have all been riding into the sunset with weather we would normally see in August, whether you are on a horse or not. This weekend was a perfect time for a bonfire and cookout at Sue Scott's house. Most folks know Sue as our anchorwoman at Noon and 5 p.m. but this is how I really know her. She is as friendly and down to earth as you can be. No wonder she has always been like a sister to me. My kids always love going to her house for horse and pony rides. Abbey really enjoy her ride on Roanie as you see above and would have rode Roanie until the sun rose the next morning if she could. Roanie is Sue's quarter horse that is not only one beautiful horse but as gentle and friendly as can be.

Lauren also got in on the action but she was a little scared so she decided to ride the smaller pony Brownie. She was certainly in awe of the whole thing. It reminded me of when she first saw Santa or the Easter Bunny at the mall. I was in awe of the great singing and food. My wife Julie made her famous chicken wing dip and her chocolate pudding dessert that defies description. You just have to eat it. Tom Harmeson our chief videographer made venison chile to go along with his impeccable chicken wings. It was my first time trying his chile and I can tell you it went really well with the weather that cooled off in a hurry after the sun went down. That man knows how to cook and build a fire. Our new reporter and fill-in anchor Kristen Crowley showed us that she knows more than the news from where you live. She got out a guitar and sang for a good 45 minutes. It was a better concert than you would sometimes get if you paid big bucks to go to a fancy concert down in Indianapolis. My daughter's loved singing Material Girl with her. I only had two words I sang out loud so I would not ruin the great concert.....WEST VIRGINIA....of course from the John Denver song. She kept her concentration despite my singing which made it even more impressive. Here is Kristen Crowley who would win American Idol hands down. You thought the girl from Mulberry was impressive? You haven't heard the girl from Chicago who now lives in Lafayette! There she is with my oldest two daughters below.

Once again our weather was smoking like that West Point camp fire. Today we hit a high of 80 degrees. It was a terrific start to the week after a wonderful weekend. But don't let that fool you. Our first big autumn storm of the season hit out West this weekend with over 12 inches of snow in Aspen and even some severe weather from Texas into Kansas. On Monday there were over a dozen reports of damaging wind and hail. So we are certainly on the warm side of this big storm and as it spins our way we will finally see our first soaking rain it looks like in Lafayette since September 15th. The latest model runs show a quarter-inch to a half inch of rain on the way by late Tuesday afternoon, Tuesday night, into Wednesday morning. Even though we are not in a severe weather risk we will have to be on guard for at least some thunderstorms with the potential of wind gusts up to 40 mph as they move through tomorrow evening. So make sure to tune in! We have plenty to talk about and I will let you know here on the blog if this a sign of a much more active weather period on the way.