There are yet more storms forming in the Atlantic and threatening the United States. The one mentioned in the last entry stalled and threatened the East Coast for days before finally dousing the coastal states as it traveled north northeast on a leisurely path. Now another one is cutting below the tip of Florida and heading towards Texas and Louisiana. The mayor of New Orleans had just issued a call for residents to return and reclaim their city, and he had to take it back because this new storm could flood his city again.

I noted that amid the calls for a review of FEMA and other federal attempts to aid the New Orleans citizens, the Christian churches are still providing huge amounts of relief and help. However, they are being denied government aid, having to rely on private contributions to various relief agencies as well as to the churches themselves.

It is a sad commentary on the rise of anti-Christian sentiments that the most effective community relief agency, the local church, is being treated as an enemy by those who are screaming the loudest at the tardiness of the federal government. They've done an altogether too good job of tarring the church and its traditional role in American culture to recognize that it is still alive and functioning to reach out to people in need as Christ commanded.

Even when it is showing the love of God towards humanity, they think they have to defend the society against it. They want power concentrated in the hands of the federal government under their control, and any body which threatens that is automatically an enemy. It isn't that surprising, considering that the Jewish leaders of Christ's time on Earth also decided to crucify Him rather than lose their political power granted by Rome, but it is just as blindly foolish. There is no logic in lashing out at someone trying to help you in a situation where you can't help yourself, but they would rather rely on FEMA than on God and His children.

It is still getting very hot in the afternoon, with highs often above 90 degrees F. The tomatoes are blooming but not setting fruit, no matter how much I water them to reduce the heat stress to a minimum. They don't like working in this heat, either, and are confining their efforts to growing bigger vines. I'm hoping they will do well when the weather cools. If it stays unusually warm into the fall, perhaps we'll have an extended gardening season.

The garden paid the price for my lack of diligence. Mom got an official notice that her yard was overgrown and called for her tree trimming man. His crew came out and scalped the yard. She even had them cut down the dwarf apple tree entirely. I just can't muster the energy to get out and do what needs doing long enough to keep up with the rampant growth, so one of the neighbors turned us in.

The pruning cost the cats a number of their hidey holes, but it did open up the yard to a lot more sunshine. They cut back things that I thought she didn't want cut back, but the job is done. At least it opened up some new holes for the irises I ordered for fall delivery.

The cats are going out more now that the temperatures are lower. They insist on being out at night, prowling around in the comfortable warmth looking for prey. I noticed that they haven't brought home the usual number of rats or baby snakes, either. The West Nile virus precautions seem to have taken a toll there, too.

I've got one sweater in the latest sweater box and I'm working on another one. I'm just plain swamped but time is zooming past even faster than before. I've had to give up on a lot of gardening entries in the organizer because it is just plain too late to plant the seeds for most of the summer crops. The heat and the air quality have been so bad that I haven't been going out much.

I've been working a lot on the ABWA website for my chapter this month. I got the yearbook entries added to the Chapter Information page. We've got a platform to broadcast our chapter activities which does show up on some of the search engines now.