14 September 2008

Ike Comes and Goes

Hurricane Ike has come and gone, and so go jokes and references to Ike & Tina and President Eisenhower ("I like Ike?"). If you are a gardener in Central Texas, you're never supposed to WISH for a hurricane, but when one is headed your way, you sure do hope for some rain.

Well, that didn't really happen, I'm afraid. Austin went nuts canceling school and football games and preparing for the Monster Storm, but things were pretty much par for the course here. No rain (not much anyway) and no cooler temperatures. It was still 100 degrees yesterday. Yuck.

My Austin Samba School performance was canceled last night at the Xemumba festival due to the "hurricane," though none was in our sights. But the hot sticky evening was not lost. Prince was in the house at the Scoot Inn, where Foot Patrol put on an amazing show honoring the Purple One and benefiting the Texas School for the Blind. The closing number couldn't have been choreographed any better: it started to pour cool, cool rain and the band gave us a rocking version of "Purple Rain." We were all wet, and it was an amazing end to a great evening.

Unfortunately, on the garden front, the rain was only about .25 inches at most. They are still saying that cooler temperatures are on the way. Fingers crossed.

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