Mine seems to be. Our younger daughter is much more interested, and concerned, about the weather and weather warnings these days.

Maybe Sarah’s just becoming more aware, but it sure seems as though it started right after we and others in the neighborhood — and across the state — were told to leave our home because of advancing floodwaters on the weekend of June 7-8.

We were blessed. No floodwaters affected our house, but they were lapping at the edges of nearby lawns west of us.

The odd thing is, that Sunday night, she was pretty excited about getting to sleep in The Tribune office. She didn’t seem that bothered by what was happening.

But she seems bothered now, even calling me at the office some mornings to check the weather report with me.

Ironically, our older daughter, Hannah, seems to be comforting Sarah these days. I say ironically because she’s the one who’s generally needed comforting during storms and who’s always been quick to flip the TV to look for storm watches and warnings.

They both have always looked at me skeptically when I tell stories about how we’d pile on to the front porch to watch thunderstorms when we were kids. I still like to watch lightning streak across the sky, especially out in the country where you can really see it race.

How about you and your children? Are they more sensitive to weather alerts since the June flooding?

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That’s just one sign that gas prices are fueling concern among consumers.

Another is how much attention politicians are paying to what we’re paying at the pump.

The latest?

Republican Mike Sodrel on Tuesday announced he will travel next week with four other Republican congressional candidates to visit the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, more commonly known as ANWR.

“High gas prices affect every area of our economy,” Sodrel said in a news release. “I am tired of hearing Congress tell us what won’t work or what takes too long. The only solutions coming from this Congress are to file lawsuits, increase taxes, investigate or regulate. None of this will increase the supply or lower the price of gas.”

The group will stop in Anchorage and then travel to Prudhoe Bay and ANWR.

Sodrel is challenging incumbent Democrat Baron Hill of Seymour in this fall’s general election for the 9th District. Sodrel declined to debate Hill on the price of gas when they squared off two years ago. This is their fourth matchup.

Sodrel and the other candidates headed to Alaska will be briefed by energy industry experts and state and local officials from Anchorage and the Arctic Circle, Sodrel’s news release said. The candidates will also visit with the private landowners and native residents of the Arctic Circle.

An article in The Wall Street Journal said Republican presidential candidate John McCain of Arizona “should take careful note (that)  Republicans in difficult House races are spending scarce campaign dollars to travel to Alaska to dramatize their stance on the drilling issue.” 

McCain — and Democratic presidential candidate Barck Obama — continues to oppose drilling in ANWR.

Hill is also talking about gas prices. His focus has been on controlling speculating in oil futures and forcing oil companies to drill on leases they already hold. He said economists have told himthat speculating in oil futures is causing gas prices to be 20 percent to 50 percent higher than supply and demand would merit.

 Libertarian Eric Schansberg, an economics professor at Indiana University Southeast who’s also challenging Hill’s re-election bid, said he found Hill’s stance on the issue “incredulous.”

“This is doubly frustrating since Baron refuses to debate me on gas prices — after repeatedly demanding a debate on this single topic in May 2006. The funny thing is that he dismissed ‘those fancy economists’ during our 2006 debate in Jasper on the minimum wage,” Schansberg said in a news release.

Schansberg said we’d paying less for gas “if the dollar had not been devalued since 2002. President Bush and his Congresses, including Baron Hill and Mike Sodrel, bear considerable responsibility for that, given their avid pursuit of government spending and debt.”

With gas prices at $4.19 a gallon in Seymour, look for gas to remain a hot topic on the minds of voters, and therefore candidates.

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My daughter, Sarah, and I planted a few toamto plants along the house this spring, as well as a few pepper plants in my mother-in-law’s garden near Cortland.
My mother-in-law, by the way, always has a great garden, much of which she shares with us. I love her spinach salad, made with spinach and green onions straight from her sandy soil.
And I’m eagerly anticipating sweet corn from her first of several plantings.
January Wetzel shoulfd be reporting eports on Page 1A of Wednesday’s edition of The Tribune that more Hoosiers are planting fruits and vegetables this year, partly because of the rising food prices. I’d imagine part of it’s an effort to heat a healthier diet, too.
We love food out of the garden, or from the farmers market or other growers selling their bounty. In case you missed it, January wrote about the Seymour Farmers Market on Monday. You can look it up at TribTown.com.
We always had a garden growing up on the southside of Indianapolis. Pop was a fanatic about growing tomatoes, and Mom planted other vegetables.
I enjoy growing tomatoes, probably because of the connection with Pop. But I really don’t like eating them raw. Pop would eat them like an apple, straight off the vine.
However, I do like tomatoes cooked just about any way imagineable — stewed, in a sauce, in a paste, on pizza or as a soup.
Just don’t ask me to eat them raw. Something about the texture, I think.
Anyway, are you gardening? Share your stories with us online at ddavis@tribtown.com.

Bill, one of my older brothers, is a Cardinals fan. His son, Brandon, backs the Sox.

Knowing that I’m a Cards’ fan, too, they asked me to tag along. Getting the OK from the boss (it was all right with work too), I said to count me in.

Between deciding that I’d go and saying that I’d go, the trip was expanded to include a stop at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, too, since the House that Ruth Built will be demolished after this season, as well as a stop at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

I thought about pointing out that the Nationall Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was in Cooperstown and that the Soccer Hall of Fame was in nearby Oneonta, N.Y., but I was afraid our weekend trip — which had already been expanded to five days — could mushroom into a week-long trek. Afterall, Bill was already noting that the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was along the route to Boston in Springfield, Mass.

But we decided the trip was ambitious enough and passed on Springfield. How could it be any better than the Indiana High School Basketball Hall of Fame in New Castle? That was my rationalization, anyway.

We enjoyed the football hall of fame, although Bill likely got more out of it than me. He’s a longtime Packers fan, and I’m a longsuffering Vikings fan. The shrine room was impressive, although I’ll argue the shrine at Cooperstown is more so. And if Cooperstown had a bust of Joe Namath, I’m sure it would look like Joe Willy White Shoes, not Soupy Sales.

Boston was pretty cool, too. We took in the Boston Commons the first afternoon in town, Friday, and I headed to the North End that night for a closer look at historical places, such as the Old North Church where Paul Revere saw that two lanterns signaled the arrival of the Red Coats by sea, while Bill and Brandon sought out Fenway.

On Saturday we boarded the USS Constitution and then went to the ballgame. The Cards won, 9-2. I tried to control my glee for Brandon’s sake. I probably didn’t succeed very well.

Stopping in the Bronx on the way home, we sought out Yankee Stadium for a tour. The guide, Ritchie, led us around the ballpark, including stops in the memorial garden (where Yogi Berra didn’t look like himself, Joe Namath or Soupy Sales), the Yankees’ dugout and the press box. I got goosebumps, there was so much history there.

I’m hoping this trip will rekindle my love for baseball, something that likely started when another big brother, Richard, took me to my first Cardinals game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. What had once been a burning passion for baseball was all but extinguished with the 1994 strike that not only shortened the season but also canceled the World Series.

Again, I’m hopeful, and I appreciate being asked to tag along. It’s a trip I’m sure we’ll long remember.

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With the technology allowing us to post news instantaneously, reporting on weather advisory has been a natural.

It’s become even more so in recent weeks and months this spring, with so much weather happening in our area.

We started posting about heavy rainfall in central Indiana and flooding there and in Bartholomew County on Saturday, including reports on the level of the East Fork of the White River.

Those updates came a little faster as flood waters started moving toward us, especially when the river’s overflow started rushing into area Sunday morning.

We kept them throughout the week, and even into this weekend.

Again, we’re curious if you found them helpful?

We realize if you were in the way of those flood waters you at some point became unable to check the updates as you and your loved ones prepared to leave your homes. My family did, too. Fortunately, we had little effect of the flooding, for which we feel fortunate and blessed.

No, this question isn’t intended to pat ourselves on the back, as we accused of with a similar column asking about whether TribTown is seen as a useful tool. We simply want to know if we’re putting our resources and time in the right place, if such information helps people. Our hope is it does.

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Generally, I don’t too much about stuff. It’s going to happen no matter what.

But I cringed when I saw the river was on the rise Thursday. I’m sure I wasn’t alone, and I’m sure many of us will be watching the river more closely than perhaps ever, at least for a while.

I apologize for not blogging since last Saturday morning, but I got pretty busy keeping postings updated about the rising river waters in Bartholomew County during the day Saturday and of course here in Jackson County on Sunday.

Things have been pretty busy all week, but I decided this morning I’d better post here.

I’ll blog more in the coming days, and possibly later today, on the flooding, weather and TribTown.

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I made a business trip to Columbus early this morning. Wow. What a bunch of rain.

There were also some pretty weird clouds up there.

People in Jackson County who merely inconvenienced by the East Fork of the White River and those farmers who are financially affacted by the flooding may not see much relief coming as a result of the heavy rainfall north and northeast of here. Any water has to eventually filter its way through Jackson County.

That’s why the river’s been so slow to drop in the past 24 hours or so.

Water was standing everywhere in Columbus this morning.

We’ll have to hope that the clouds that dumped 8 to 10 inches of rain in Terre Haute and Paragon overnight weren’t so full as moved east.

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That seemed a bit odd since Chicago is north of Seymour and San Antonio is south of Seymour.

I should have known the flight home was going to be more convoluted when I saw that it was going to be a couple hours longer to arrive in Louisville than it did to get to San Antonio.

Yep, the flight home went to Chicago’s Midway Airport. After an hour layover, which became a two-hour layover, a second plane took me to Louisville.

I thought about asking the flight attendant if they could toss my bags out and give me a parachute as we flew over the house en route to Louisville, but I learned long ago that flight attendants – like TSA workers – generally don’t have much of a sense of humor, especially at 12:15 on a Friday night.

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That was tempered when I learned I’d be flying into St. Louis for a brief layover.

When traveling to Chicago tonight en route to Louisville, I saw that my plane from Midway to Kentucky would be leaving from, you guessed it, Gate B17.

Upon landing and rushing to my gate, I learned that the flight would be about 40 minutes late, now scheduled to leave at 10:15 p.m.

Hope we don’t leave any later. It’s already been a long day, and I miss Karen and the girls.

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