More on the Drought

Yeah, I know- it's getting old. But as I have always been kind of a weather buff, and this is exceptional, I am staying tuned in. This weekend my son went to a Boy Scout camp that had local professors and scientists teaching merit badges with an environmental theme. In Soil and Water Conservation the instructor took an apple and cut it into fourths. He took one piece, "this is the amount of land in the world". He cut that section again into fourths. "One of these pieces represents how much of the land is not mountains nor is frozen". Cutting 1/4 again gets you to the approximate amount of land on Earth that is farmable. This example, plus the fact that 1 inch of topsoil takes 500-1000 years to create, makes this even more heart-breaking.

Fall is Here

Buffalo wings and ranch dip, pumpkin pie and whipped cream... all the burnt orange and white good mojo cuisine we ate couldn't keep the Sooners from whoopin' us this year. But it didn't keep it from being an almost perfect weekend: a couple of extra days off, some cooler weather, and one of my bestest friends coming into town and helping me test the canoe rig. And to top it all off I had a day with the fam to do nothing but watch Myth Busters and take shower naps. That's right- we got over 2 inches of rain!
The wind on canoe day started off breezy, about 10-12 knots. That was enough to get us going about 4 knots dead downwind. I was happy with the paddle as a rudder, and with only one lee board (like a dagger board keel) we were able to maneuver past a broad reach (almost to beam reach. I didn't want to push it, as the wind started to gust up to 18). The main flaw was the mast step. It kept slipping to the side, angling the mast and tipping the end of the boom into the water. An easy redesign should take care of it and make the boat faster. Back to the drawing board.

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!

Last time I'll complain about the Summer-

Wednesday broke the record for number of days in a year above 100, and there is no high temp below 102 predicted for as far as they care to predict. It's getting serious, and we're making national news ( http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44189349/ns/weather/?gt1=43001 ). This will be the last time this year I will complain about the heat. Honest. It's just too depressing to think about.

This is getting serious.

I have actually been dreaming of rain. A summer like this is just as depressing as a winter in Alaska (although I've often thought I'd actually like a winter in Alaska). People here get cabin fever, start gaining weight, and start driving even worse than usual. What to do? Either cower from the heat (with trips to the museum or NERF modification projects, see pics) or confront it head on by standing in a line all day in the sun in close proximity to strangers. Yessir, I'm talking about Six Flags over Texas. Until last week, I hadn't been to Six Flags but once in the last 20 years. It left such an impression on me as a kid; back then we went 1 time a year, and it ranked up there with Christmas. We didn't have a lot of money growing up, but my dad worked for the electric company, which had a yearly work retreat at Six Flags. Other than the new corporate sponsored attractions, it hasn't changed too terribly much. Of course, there are new rides. Among them is the Batman roller coaster- one of those ones where you hang, legs dangling, from the carriage. It was awesome.