This past Monday fall weather decided to visit the south. Here in Oklahoma we had rain and it got down to the 70s. I wore a pair of jeans which I haven’t worn since April!
Folks are excited for the return of weather that isn’t in the triple digits. Alas, it will be back to the 80s later this week so we can pretend that fall is upon us for a couple days! Reminds me of some of these funnies:
DCG
Davyon Johnson (center)
An 11-year-old boy in Muskogee, Oklahoma had a busy day this past December 9. First Davyon Johnson saved a choking classmate at school, then later that day helped an elderly woman safely flee a burning house. Wow!
The life-saving events started at school when Davyon used an abdominal thrust on a school mate who was choking on a bottle cap. According to Davyon’s school principal:
“… a student was trying to fill his water bottle and trying to loosen the cap with his mouth. The cap slipped into his throa. The choking student stumbled into a nearby classroom, where Davyon happened to be. Davyon immediately sprinted over and did the Heimlich maneuver.”
Later that day, Davyon helped a woman get away from her burning house:
” Davyon saved a woman from her burning house later that day. “It was a disabled lady and she was walking out of her house,” Davyon said. “She was on her porch. But I thought, being a good citizen, I would cross and help her get into her truck and leave.” He said the back of the house was on fire, “but it eventually got to the front of the house.”
Read the whole story here.
The local county sheriff, police and public schools honored Davyon for his actions.
Guess what Davyon wants to be when he grows up? An EMT!
Appears to be an inevitable career path for this young man!
DCG
Posted in safety
Tagged first aid, Heimlich maneuver, Muskcogee School District, Muskogee, Oklahoma
This happened in Owasso, Oklahoma in Tulsa County. A camel on the run!
The police captured him and the creature was returned to his owner. Bet the camel enjoyed his brief jaunt!
DCG
Wired came out recently with an article entitled, “The Cicadas Are Coming. Let’s Eat Them!”
Never heard of a Cicada? Here’s what this insect looks like:
And YES, they can be that BIG. Trust me, I’ve seen ’em in Oklahoma. And I’ve heard them. This is what Cicadas sound like when they emerge from the ground to terrorize us for a few weeks in the summer:
From the Wire article: “They’re like crickets with musical-theater degrees—dramatic, loud, committed to a splashy outfit change. And while some people will delight in their natural spectacle, others will just want to be rid of them. There is, however, another reaction: Grab a fork and knife.“
You want to “dig in” to this?
The Wired article claims that Cicadas are “a source of free-range, no-cost, eco-friendly protein.”
Well, that may be true but there’s NO WAY I’m eating these creatures. My cats have captured and released Cicadas. Even the feline predators wont eat ’em!
If my cats are smart enough to not eat these creatures, there’s no way I’m eating them!
DCG
Yesterday we went to our local Oklahoma refuge to try and get a glimpse of a “red dog.”
“Red dog” is a reference to a baby bison. This is due to their “red” (more like orange) color when they are born. Some folk refer to baby bison as “cinny babies” due to their cinnamon-like color.
When baby bison are born, they are red/orange in color and their dark brown coloring develops after a few months. Their “humps” and horns also grow at that time. Read more about the bison here.
Since the babies tend to be born from late March through May, we headed out to the refuge to see if we could spot any “red dog.”
Alas, we did not spot any. We also didn’t spot many prairie dogs as about 50+ Longhorn were passing through prairie dog town.
Texas Longhorns passing through prairie dog town.
Lone prairie dog keeping an eye on the Longhorns.
But here’s some cute videos of red dogs:
We’ll try again next year and hopefully be able to see some “red dogs!”
DCG
Posted in God's creation, Nature
Tagged baby bison, bison, bison "red dog", Oklahoma, Yellowstone Park
This week in my Oklahoma town we had a tornado warning the other night. We’ve been in this state for over seven years and have yet to see one. I never saw one when I lived in Georgia either, even though we’d go outside when the tornado siren went off!
Tornadoes happen frequently in the south during this time of year. Check out a tornado compilation here:
The US has the most tornadoes than any other country each year.
How are tornadoes formed? From Popular Mechanics:
“Tornadoes are usually born from thunderstorms. High intensity tornadoes form from supercell thunderstorms, a storm that has a “deep rotating mesocyclone.” Supercell thunderstorms are usually when you’ll hear a tornado warning. A regular thunderstorm will hit before a supercell and for this to occur, a specific set of ‘ingredients’ need to come together.
Humid air, which rises, collides with cold air in the atmosphere above it. This creates wind shears, rolling columns of wind that spin above the space where the hot and cold air meet. The warmer air creates an updraft that takes one of the horizontal wind shears and moves it into a vertical position.
The peak of the updraft has two spinning columns on either side of it—the larger of the two columns overtakes the smaller one and becomes the thunderstorm. From here, the storm is able to expand due to the warm air being sucked into the spinning column.”
Read the whole Popular Mechanics article here.
Read more tornado formation/characteristics here or watch below:
Have you ever seen a tornado?
DCG