For the first time since it rained about five minutes one night three or four months ago. And before that it might have been another three or four months.
A good thing, too, since it’s been so dry here the cacti have been dying of thirst:
I took that picture along the Rattan Creek greenbelt earlier this week…
Some YouTube videos I grabbed:
Removed the KVUE video embed because it’s farking up my page loads.
Keep safe…
10 PM Update: 25 homes lost in Steiner Ranch.
10:55 PM Update: Parts of Dripping Springs being told to evacuate.
More video, this time from the Southeast corner of the Griffith League Scout Ranch property near Lost Pines:
Also got an email back from Michael Moorcock, who says he’s OK, and that they haven’t been asked to evacuate yet.
So I’m hearing. Drought + high winds = fire hazard.
And Steiner Ranch is only about 15 miles from here. On the other hand, the land around here is flat rather than the hill country arroyos that make fires easier to start and harder to fight. And I have managed to keep the overwhelming majority of my lawn alive.
Be safe, everyone. And if you haven’t done it before, now might be a good time to figure out what you need for a “bugout bag” and make sure you have at least one fire extinguisher in your house…
Just in case you were wondering…
I wasn’t.
Here in Texas, we’re pretty much used to it hitting 100º for several days running in the summer. What we’re not so used to is it hitting 105º every day for weeks on end. Lately it’s been about 95º when I went out to walk my dog at 10:30 at night.
This is, to say the least, unpleasant.
We’re also breaking power-consumption records.
This is the hottest summer I can remember, and the drought is even worse. Not only is it worse than any I can remember, it’s the worst since they started keeping rainfall records. In 1895.
If you need visual confirmation, this graphic should do the trick:
100% of the state is under drought conditions, and 75% are suffering from D4 exceptional drought. Maybe they need to add a D5 level: “It’s dead, Jim.” Yes, it’s worse statistically than the Dust Bowl. (Thank modern agriculture, irrigation and lack of wind for not picking up the topsoil and dropping it on other states.) It also threatens record agricultural losses.
I fully expect it to be cooler in Reno for the Worldcon than it will be in Austin.
One consolation: So far, it doesn’t look like we’ll break the all-time record for the hottest day in Austin history, which was 112º on September 5th, 2000. That was not fun. (I was out riding my bike the day before, when it only hit a temperate 109º…)
Attention Austinites: That wet stuff falling from the sky is called “rain.” I know you may not have seen these in some time, but it’s a naturally occurring phenomena.
It should also help ease our extreme drought.
In celebration, here’s Ladysmith Black Mombazo with “Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain.”
Home waiting for FedEx. Serious brownout has rebooted my computer a couple of times. Currently offline.
By the way, blogging from an iPhone SUCKS.
As previously mentioned, I attended the World Horror Convention here in Austin, where I moderated a panel with William F. Nolan. I cheekily had him sign some books while I was on the panel (all in good fun), but the real treat was grabbing several more signatures during the mass signing, as he likes to do drawings when signing. Here’s an example (or at least as much as would fit on the scanner) of the art he put on the blank page of “The Final Stone,” his story in Dennis Etchison’s Landmark Cutting Edge horror anthology:
Click to embiggen.
Thanks Bill!
It looked like my Kodak Digital camera had died, but it seems to be working again after fiddling with it, removing the battery a few times, and plugging it in. Still, I’ll probably need to get a new camera before Apollocon in June, since the automatic shutter isn’t retracting all the way any more…
William F. Nolan and Rocky Wood, both of whom were with me on the “Horror Without Stephen King,” along with someone who wasn’t.
Bill Crider
Bill & Judy Crider.
Bill Spencer. A lot of Bills today, mainly because none of them had yet been signed into law.
Now THAT’s a HAT.
SF Signal’s John DeNardo, AKA “Mr. Saturday Night.”
Don Webb, in the one photo I took on my iPhone that didn’t completely suck.