Red Flag Warning

So my little weather sticker has been flashing at me all day. I didn’t pay that much attention to it because the the sky is blue and I *know* there isn’t any rain in the immediate forecast. But I finally checked after the thing kept buzzing at me. We have a Red Flag warning. I don’t recall seeing one of those before. Really. According to the national weather service, a red flag warning means that critical fire weather conditions are occurring.

That would be on account of our lack of rain, the steady (constant) breezes and almost desert-like relative humidity. Truly, I don’t remember that we’ve ever had a relative humidity of 15%! And my nose knows it’s dry out there in a most miserable sort of way. I finally put my large stockpot on the stove to simmer for a while, before I shrivel up and my nose falls off.

It has been like this for a few days, but I guess today we reached the really critical point. Two days ago, I stopped by the Dunkin Donuts drive through and, out by the squawk box, there were a couple of employees stomping around in the heavily mulched landscaping. Evidently someone tossed a cigarette out their car window and it set the mulch on fire. First time I’ve seen that happen, too.

Unrelated...the high school principal just left a pre-recorded message on the answering machine inviting us to a sports-related pizzer party tomorrow evening (that would be pizza with an ‘r’). See, that’s what people around here do with all the ‘r’s that they drop from words like pahk or stayahs or theyah.