We’re in the final days of summer for north America – the autumnal equinox happens in just a few days (Sep 22). It was a fairly mild summer in Socal, but a hot humid one in KY.
Now comes the Fall, in which the weather across our two homes begins to diverge radically. October and even November can be brutally hot in Socal, with frequent hot Santa Ana winds creating the worst fire hazards of the year. Our all-time worst fires, in 2003 and 2007, were in October. At the same time, KY weather cools down, the leaves begin to turn and the best weather of the year ensues. Go figure.
The grandsons are visiting the Monsma clan in Michigan this week, and one of the pictures from there is just too good to not share. Happy kids!
We’ll be in KY to see them soon. And to sample the (hopefully) great Fall weather.
Here’s another CA-KY comparison. USAToday has ranked cities and states by driver rudeness, and here are some results:
5 cities with the rudest drivers
- Rancho Cordova, California: 65.37 per 1,000.
- Citrus Heights, California: 64.14 per 1,000.
- Ventura, California: 64.03 per 1,000.
- Hampton, Georgia: 62.35 per 1,000.
- Petersburg, Virginia: 53.36 per 1,000.
5 cities with the most polite drivers
- Somerset, Kentucky: 1.62 per 1,000.
- Corbin, Kentucky: 1.86 per 1,000.
- Rio Rancho, New Mexico: 3.8 per 1,000.
- Metairie, Louisiana: 17.94 per 1,000.
- Southaven, Mississippi: 19.3 per 1,000.
Not surprising that CA has 3/5 worst spots, measured by driving citations per thousand – people drive madly here. I’m pleasantly surprised that KY gets 2/5 top spots for least rude driving. And that the worst (rudest) driving populations generate sixty times more citations than the least rude.
Of course it could just be the amount of policing done in each geography. Statistics and the assumptions behind them are complicated….
Finally, in some nice news for the day, SpaceX’s all-civilian crew returned to Earth after a few days orbiting. They got to live a dream of mine, so good for them. Maybe at some point SpaceX will decide to take a geriatric, overweight, opinionated Caucasian Baby Boomer to orbit. Yeah, right. But I can still dream.