Hurricane Rita hit the Texas coast, and the rain swiping Louisiana broke the New Orleans levees again. This storm went through an area with oil refineries like a bowling ball in the strike zone. At least it wasn't as strong as Katrina, but it still did considerable damage.

Texas was better prepared for the crisis. People got out of the way of this storm, and there was no serious outbreak of looting and violence afterwards. Texans kick butt if someone acts up, especially in or after a crisis. My Texas cousins are all okay. One had tree damage to a corner of their house, but they were largely spared.

We got some wind and steady rain overnight as the remnants cruised over our area. The garden really needed it, and the soil is nicely moist now. I didn't notice any flooding near us, but the nearby creek was pretty high for about a day. The garden didn't suffer much damage since there wasn't a lot left to damage after the pruning. There were a few more downed small branches, but not even much of that.

The government may finally unbend and reimburse the churches for their hurricane relief efforts. Many churches may not take the money for fear of government interference, but other small churches badly stretched financially could use the funds to help continue their efforts. The hurricane season still has about two months to go.

We are having a break in the weather with much cooler temperatures predicted for this week. The autumn cold fronts are finally beginning to push through this hot, humid air and drop the highs into the 80's degree F. I'm waiting to see if we actually have chilly mornings this week.

The tomatoes have appreciated the cooler air and are finally setting fruit. I started some more seeds last week to take advantage of the rain and spotted some new seedlings up this morning. A flat of lettuce, beets and Swiss chard on the porch is doing well, and some little cabbage seedlings are coming up. There are a few snap beans and mustard seedlings up in the yard. If the rain and cold fronts can keep sweeping the pollution and heat out of the area, I might yet get a little more gardening done this year.

The sun is coming up noticeably later and going down sooner than at the peak of summer. The daytime temperatures are out of synch with the day length. It feels so strange to go out for the paper in dim light with the temperature feeling like the sun should be blazing a third of the way into the sky. Most of the fog I've seen has been from mosquito spraying instead of cool morning temperatures.

I've got two sweaters in the box and another about half done. I've made an effort to catch up on the organizer list and have chipped away a month of the backlog. I'm only about two months behind now. I've been requiring less to declare a task done, giving myself a more reasonable goal to reach. The organizer is as much in need of a scalping as the yard was. It just doesn't work when I pile more work into a day's schedule than I can possibly do.