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From the Collection of Pat Young Remember when: You were born a daughter. You looked up to your mother.

Don’t you love the sound of that first thunderstorm after winter with all the lighting and thunder? Lighting is described as a ”natural electrical discharge of very short duration and high voltage between a cloud and the ground or within a cloud”. This high voltage discharge can heat the surrounding air to 50,000*F., which is hotter than the surface of the sun! The air with that kind of heat expands rapidly sending out a series of shock waves.

1. Restores and cleans padded leather dashboards in vehicles, as well as vinyl bumpers.

The dog and I took a walk along the river road and I wished I had along my son’s ranger beads. Ranger beads are a string of beads that soldiers use and they are like an abacus. There are two sections. The top has four beads and the bottom has nine. You simply count 100 paces and then slide a lower bead from one end to the other. After you have the nine lower beads to one end, after the next 100 paces you slide one of the upper beads. You have now walked 1000 paces. At that point, you start sliding the beads back. Using the beads you can easily keep track of up to 5,000 paces, or close to five miles.

*EDITOR'S NOTE: Due to breaking news of the grass fire last week, this installment of The Village Naturalist was moved to this week. Though Leap Day is past, the history of Leap Year is quite interesting.

Jack Lynn, an avid baseball fan and player, once persuaded to attend the races, where he put a $2 bet on a 50-to-1 shot. As his horse came down the stretch neck-and-neck with the favorite, Jack hollered: “Slide, yuh bum! Slide!”

From the Collection of Pat Young A lady having lunch at the house of a friend praised a sauce that was served and was given permission afterward to ask the cook for the recipe. The cook said she didn’t have the recipe - just worked things out as she went along.

After the examination, the doctor informed his patient that he was suffering from gout and rheumatism. “Well, doc, what’s the difference between them,” asked the patient.

Was it only six months ago that we heard the phrase “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity”? The reason “it’s the humidity” is because of the way we cool our bodies. When we get hot we sweat.