Well, it's also time to be watching the water you drink. You normally drink water every time you get too hot. Sometimes, you even drink milk.

Now, when you leave out water in the hot sun for a few hours and you walk back out to pick it up, it may have evaporated in half and you probably think, "Becky drank my water." Then you go and blame Becky for drinking your water, but she says, "Why would I possibly drink YOUR water, Peggy?" Then there is a huge disagreement, and Becky gets mad and storms off.

You go inside, and decide to get another glass, filling it up to the top. The phone rigs and you ditch your second cup of water outside. It happens to be your mom, telling you you need to clean your room. So, you forget all about both cups and clean your room. When you remember your two glasses, you go outside and take a look -- and the water in the first cup is gone! Also, the water in the second cup is 2/3 gone. You know Becky didn't drink it, because she is at home.

So what happened? You certainly didn't drink it.

Well, oh well, you will just go get milk. So, you go to the milk, and that darn phone rings again. This time, it's your dad, asking what he needs to get while shopping. You run around the house again and tell him. You then hang up and forget once more about that glass.

A few days later, you find the glass in your room, and take a BIG sip. You taste the chunky milk, the milk you had poured a couple days ago. You run to the sink and spit it out. Well, you are NEVER drinking milk AGAIN!

What just happened is a form of evaporation. The water evaporated into the sky, while the milk was hardening. The milk made chunks because, milk can't evaporate. And you blamed your best friend for drinking your water when all she did was sit and drink her own! By now you must feel bad, huh? (Editor's Note: Did the milk really evaporate? What do you think those chunks are really made of? Here's a hint, if you're curious: Why does 'spoiled' milk sometimes smell like a particularly nasty kind of cheese?)

Later, you get over all this and go to school, where your teacher tells you about the river system and the water cycle. That's when you realize something. Didn't the same thing happen to you and your water? Well, now you feel PRETTY dumb. Yeah, you drank chunky milk that you should have known was dead, and you wasted water at the same time, instead of saving it.

Now, I am not saying you can watch your water evaporate, but you can do a science project about this, evaporating water.

Confused?

The water cycle goes around and around, taking all the water it can get -- water turns into water vapor, and then becomes water droplets in the air. When the water droplets get too heavy, they fall as either rain, sleet, hail or snow.

Wonder why the earth recycles water? The water you are drinking up or stepping on will probably be basically the same water that will fall from rain in a few weeks. If the earth just doesn't recycle water, and we keep it from evaporating and joining the cycle, then we won't have any water, will we?

So when you say, "Hey, where's my water?" Remember, it's not just YOUR water, and remember the water cycle. Well, now I am off to pour myself a drink.

Editor's Note: Is there really a way to keep water out of the cycle? Who can come up with an experiment to test ways of keeping water from being a part of the system?