The Last Water in Texas

Well that's a bit of an overstatement, but it sure feels like it. This is a waxing gibbous over pools in pink granite near Inks Lake. It's been a good weekend: UT redeemed themselves against UCLA, Dallas got .5 inches of rain (although we only got 5 minutes of rain), and we're playing this benefit for folks displaced by the Bastrop fires.

New Records

Now Texas can boast about being the mostest in another category; nope, not the most stingy for spending on education. We've had the hottest summer in US history! (I know I said I would stop complaining about the heat, but this doesn't count as complaining.) We also set drought records, and new data has weather models concurring that La Nina is going to keep Texas rain-free until 2012. Now, I AM going to keep complaining about the drought. It is getting very serious. Wildfires are the most dramatic catastrophe caused by the drought (see pic above of Batrop fire, now officially the most devastating in Texas history). But its impact on agriculture, and eventually on people, will be slow and agonizing. Check it out.
And here is animation of satellite pics of the fires:

...and all is right with the world.

Well, almost. I woke up this morning, Labor Day, no work, bottled a batch of IPA, had some left-over UT victory cupcakes for breakfast, did a little brake work on the car, and kept the back door open a crack. It was the first cool breeze in longer than I can remember. But that breeze, cool as it is, did not bring rain. It is instead helping to spread a fire East of Austin that has, at the time of this posting, destroyed about 500 houses and 1/2 a state park. Click on the picture for a better view of the smoke we could see from our place. Winds are expected to die down, fires will be contained, and there is no news of any casualties, but I don't know how much more of this drought we can take!