I'm in Little Rock > Shreveport > Magnolia

So, now I know why Seattle had such a long dry summer and is having a relatively dry autumn so far -- or at least I know where all the rain's gone.

Arkansas. Or at least to that part of it my family's called home for a long, long time now (since about 1868, when the Rateliffs fled Mississippi during the famines that came in the wake of the Civil War). Specifically, Columbia County, where I am now, which has had thirty-two inches of rain since the beginning of September. Or so I was told when I arrived on Monday. And that was before the downpours on Tuesday, which cut off some roads. The Thursday papers carried pictures of (minor) flooding in Magolia itself. It's stopped now, and the sun came out in a beautiful blue sky today, perhaps marking a return to more usual weather in these parts.

Perhaps.

--John R.

current reading: WHAT KIND OF NATION (Jefferson vs. Marshall) by Ja. F. Simon [2002]