Friday Five from RevGalBlogPals

Friday 5- floods and droughts posted by Sally

Here in the UK we are struggling with floods, other parts of the world have similar problems without the infrastructure to cope with it, still others are badly affected by drought.... My son Jon is in Melbourne Australia where apparently it has been snowing ( yes it is winter but still!).... With crazy weather in mind I bring you this weeks Friday 5...

1. Have you experienced living through an extreme weather event- what was it and how did you cope? I have had multiple extreme experiences.

• When I was about 3, our apartment flooded and my dad cut his hand bad enough he had to get stitches. I still have vivid memories of standing on the dresser eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as my dad was cleaning out the window well. There was glass in there that he could not see. While Mom took Dad to the ER, I went upstairs and stayed with the landlord.
  
• Later, we had an ice storm when I was in first grade that shut everything down and electricity was out. It was out for sometime, days, but I can't remember exactly how long. We had gas heat so we were able to stay warm and my mom improvised cooking.
  
• I once found out after the fact that we had driven very close to a tornado just missing it's path.
  
• A different extreme cold situation had us bringing the car battery inside and doing everything from the water bed with the heater turned as hot as possible and blankets piled on top.
  
• A massive storm with hail smashed windows on the cars, house, and damaged the roof significantly and we had no power for 3 days. When it did come on, it wasn't right and the electric co. had to come fix it. That storm was the scariest because I was a mom by then.
  
• Then there are the more recent flooding experiences that impacted travel to class and canceled SportsQueen's softball games but thankfully didn't do much other than trim trees at our house.

2. How important is it that we wake up to issues such as global warming? A long time ago, I was a biology major and our professors talked about how our selfishness was harming the resources we took for granted. And my Physics professor talked about how we had the technology to have better gas mileage but the big 3 and the oil companies opposed further development because it would negatively impact their business.

3. The Christian message needs to include stewardship of the earths resources agree/ disagree? I think true Christian stewardship must include all resources. I really think that's the point of humans being "given dominion" in Genesis. Even crop rotation is sabbath for the earth and a part of stewardship.

And because it is summer- on a brighter note....

4. What is your favourite season and why? I like spring because of all of the new life. I like fall because of the changing colors and apple butter and my birthday.

5. Describe your perfect vacation weather.... weather like Maui, 80s not too hot, not too cool, perfect for jeans or shorts, comfortable for short sleeves and bring a jacket along just in case