Fall Bliss

It was opening day last weekend. I had time for a short hunt. Work called, and while you might ask, “What kind of a hunter listens to that siren song on opening day?” I can only say reasons, but the weather offered cover. Surely, by now you’ve seen the chaos in the Southwest caused by record rains. The extreme El Niño in the eastern Pacific off the coast of South America, superheating the ocean along the equator, is pumping moisture into the storms battering Arizona, New Mexico and southern Colorado. I lived in Flagstaff, Ariz., for six years. Large chunks of the south side of that town — homes, coffee shops, pizza joints — were flooded by waist-deep water a few days ago. Aerial photos of the Flagstaff fields where my daughters played their first soccer matches look like a muddy lake rather than an emerald pitch. So, what’s that got to do with my opening day on the Great Plains? Those storms had to go somewhere after they trashed the Southwest.

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