Janet's Blog

Jackson spotted them first, or maybe, he smelled them. Anyway, he alerted me to the deer's presence, just a few feet away, on the other side of the ditch. I had driven about a mile from home, past the landfill, to the small parking area next to the bike path that skirts the east side of the National Park land. We had left the house a little later than I planned, so the sun had disappeared behind the Monument before we started walking on the path. It was a beautiful, still evening, right at dusk. I was hoping the light would hold out until we made it back to the car. I was hoping, too, to spot some wildlife of the four-legged kind--I can do without rattlesnakes, thank you very much! The lingering sunset, on the north edge of Scotts Bluff. We met a couple of other walkers on the path, with their black lab, but otherwise, Jackson and I had the path to ourselves. I snapped way too many sunset pictures. On the way back, we crossed over to the alley that borders the bike path, to get jus...

It has been quite a summer throughout Nebraska, weather-wise, and the Panhandle is no different. Just in the last week, we have had three hailstorms, with golf ball- and even baseball-sized hail. The last storm was a doozy, pouring a torrent of rain, two inches in little more than an hour, and boasting winds of 90 miles per hour. Our yard and cars fared pretty well. My petunias and hollyhocks were flattened, but the petunias, at least, are looking much better already. The solar pool cover has quite a few holes in it, but that is easy, and relatively cheap, to replace. Victoria's Mini Cooper has only a couple of new dents, but our daughter, Meagan, wasn't so fortunate: her mini-van sustained thousands of dollars in hail damage while awaiting repairs at a local car dealership. Other people in Scotts Bluff County didn't come out well at all. Shattered windshields and dozens of dents are not covered by the liability insurance that is all so many younger people can afford. O...