fires update, fair weather, football

FIRES UPDATE
theyre getting there
except for the biggest bastrop fire containment is happening
(34000 acres 30 % containment)

the spicewood fire west of austin is 100 % contained
the steiner ranch fire in northern austin is almost contained
the other smaller fires are also mostly contained

close to 1000 homes have burned in these fires

it is very smoky in this area
if you have asthma emphysema or respiratory problems then this
makes it difficult to breathe outside

there is even more fire fighters and equipment arriving now for
use in fighting these fires
finally

hopefully all those hurricanes will do something to bring moisture
into here to slow these fires down some

FAIR WEATHER
thank goodness for this fair weather
it makes all this fire business a little more tolerable but
not acceptable

its so nice to be able to open the house to the cool night air
makes it easy to sleep at night
as the aricept im on interferes with my sleep the cool night air
sure helped me sleep last night

yesterday i took my cup of coffee out to my electric meter
and just watched it spin backwards all day
finally the solar panels are overcoming the electricity used by
our air conditioners which have been running non stop now for over
3 months
it sure was therapeutic to see my meter reading less at the end of
the day compared to the reading at the beginning of the day
hope we can have more days like this


now we just need rain

there are 3 hurricanes abrewing in the gulf and surrounding areas
katia, maria, nate with nate the only one that has the possibility of
helping bring in moisture into the state
just dont bring all that wind that lee brought on us which
led to this disaster

FOOTBALL
maybe obama was smart to give his address tonight just before
the first nfl game of the year between the saints and the packers

he has an audience that may normally not watch his address
hopefully he says something that we can all grab a hold of to
make us feel better about the economy

am just ready for the nfl games to start
there goes all my weekends for the next 16+ weekends
sure glad my wife she likes football too
my sons they and i trained her well over the years
she likes things we like
thanks my wife she
you are a good sport

baylor may be blocking the aggies from leaving the big 12
for the sec
baylor has the most to lose in this big 12 mess as they will
probably be left in the cold without a major conference to
be a part of
they and some of the others are filing a lawsuit to block the aggies
which will prevent them from going to the sec

dont mess with those baptists

the organicgreen doctor

texas katrina fire, she aint dead

TEXAS KATRINA FIRE
there are 3 major fires around the austin area
the spicewood fire is over 6000 acres and is starting to get contained
the steiner ranch fire is over 50 % contained and residents are
being allowed back in to view their homes

this is a photo of the bastrop fire
its the texas katrina fire



it has been burning out of control now for 5 days
it is 0 % containment
it has become a os fire
limited resources were applied to it and as the winds increased
the fire has grown out of control
many local fire departments were busy fighting local fires
in their areas and had few resource that could be used
for the bastrop fire

so many fires have happened at one time in texas that there are
limited resources available to fight these fires
so the fire had continued at its own pace without abatement



above is a weather radar image of the fire



finally crews are coming from experienced firefighting areas like
california
and these planes finally showed up to help
the state and federal government has started throwing more
resources on this fire

i rarely agree with rick perry but i do agree when he said
if there is equipment available some where i dont care who
it belongs too it needs to be used

maybe they could put some black duct tape over that red tape
to get er done

hopefully now that more equipment and firefighters and more
government resources are applied to these fires some control
can be made of the worsening bastrop fire

on a personal note we are totally safe here at the country n
the fires are 25 miles north and 20+ miles south of us
hopefully no winds will start back up again
which would only restart everything over again

there is a tropical storm developing in the southern gulf at
about the same place where td lee arose from

wouldnt that be something if a hurricane like hermaine from
last year would develop and dump lots of rain on the bastrop
fire
could we be so lucky
stay tuned

SHE AINT DEAD YET
this is from a local austin news website kxan.com
a lady near here tried to get credit to buy a travel trailer
she paid to get her credit report
she was denied the loan because she was dead
that is
according to the three major credit bureaus
she couldnt get the loan until she proved she wasnt dead

shes a big women and she appeared to be breathing and talking
that should mean something to someone somewhere in control that
she wasnt dead
nope wasnt enough

she finally got the chase bank people to admit that someone had
made a data entry error that she was dead

her hopes for a loan for the trailer died after all that

the organicgreen doctor

fires, fall, football, thoughts

FIRES



this is an image of the smoky fire over the skyline of austin
this smoke is from the largest of the fires that are burning around
the city of austin
this is the one that got rick perry to come back to texas
from the presidential race
guess he did not want to pull a george bush katrina snaffu

this fire is south of austin near the community of bastrop
this area is known for forests of old pine trees that nature
put in central texas and are not located anywhere else except
in eastern texas
the trees are igniting like they have gasoline poured on them
because of the high winds and low humidity it has been difficult
to fight this fire
it even jumped over the colorado river and continued on

most of the fires are in the hill country which is hilly and has a
lot of ravines
this is hard to get equipment and fire fighters in to fight these fires
most of the trees are cedar which like the pine trees near bastrop
ignite like they have gasoline on them

there is a large fire west of austin in the hill country and in the
northern part of the city
none of these fires are near containment
tonight the winds died down but today the winds will pick back up
some but not as bad
there also will be extremely low humidity in this area (<10 %) which
makes this all worse

a fire broke out again in the community where i was in practice
several homes were burned and people were evacuated to a local
high school for the night

just north of us is the largest military base in the world-ft hood texas
there is a large fire there also
the smoke from it was blowing over our house last night when the
wind shifted
the base is about 25 miles from our house
fire on a military base with all those munitions doesnt sound very good

hopefully some containment will happen today
we sure could use some rain

my rainwater tanks are real low so ive ordered water delivered
however

we missed two of the big rains in the last year because our tanks
were all disconnected when they happened and we are paying the
price for that today

the water company deliveries have been delayed by the fires and
the use of water in many of the water systems for the fires
hope we dont run out of water here
severe water restrictions are in order at the country n
rain please

FALL
the cool front has came through here and dropped the
temperatures from the 100s+ to the upper 80s
what a relief it is to have these cooler temps
its too bad it brought in the high winds and extremely dry air
which has made it worse for the wildfires

however my wife she and i are enjoying these temperatures
its so nice to open up the house to all of the fresh air and
breezes

will have to wear a light jacket this am when we go on our walk

just need rain

FOOTBALL
oded on football this weekend
but had no hangover

follow the horns and the hogs
sure wished they played each other every year
the horns are real young so will probably struggle some this year
but those young guys are talented

hogs will always have a rough season since they play in the sec
lsu, alabama, auburn, mississippi state, florida, georgia
thats a real rough schedule
so why would the aggies ask to be abused every year by joining
sec
thats aggies for you

was very impressed by baylor this weekend
as they beat tcu in an exciting game
the qb rg3 was pretty impressive-think vince young as a pocket passer

cant wait for week two of college football
and for the start of the nfl season

THOUGHTS
our thoughts are with all of the hundreds of families affected by
these fires
if you pray pray for them
if you meditate meditate for them

the organicgreen doctor