Good things

Rob (at Crab Apple Lane) and the Swillers who were in the path of Gustav are all OK. (And it looks like the worst of it's past Rob now...he has a nice photo up of cardinals coming to feed after the storm).

From my somewhat-distant vantage point, it looks as if Gustav was not nearly as bad as feared. Sure, there are going to be people who were killed (though at least one was one of those "alcohol was involved" situations - and so I would not blame that on Gustav.)

But I think if anything good came out of Katrina, it is that people in NOLA took the evacuation more seriously this time, and it seems that the Powers That Be were far better prepared. (And I agree with Rob - I don't think it's so much a matter of politics as it was a matter of "We were able to learn from the mistakes last time.")

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I've been working in my garden some more, trying to put in an hour or so every few days as I have some free time. It's really probably too much for one person who is employed full-time elsewhere to keep up, but I try. I weeded the tomato and herb garden (and debated pulling out the tomatoes which look very sickly right now, but didn't. I gave them a shot of the special "tomato fertilizer" I have and think maybe when it gets a bit cooler, they'll pop back.)

I also planted a couple rows of beets. I want to try growing beets this fall. One of the things I'm still not used to about this climate is that there's a fall season for cool-season crops, and according to the beet package, I should be planting them now for my USDA region.

So we'll see. I've gotten to like beets recently, at least in the form of Harvard beets and pickled beets. I may try making borscht this fall if I get some beets from the garden.

I like the thought of growing food even if I'm not that successful in practice.

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I also cleared out a disused flower bed - I'm going to order a bunch of mixed daffodil bulbs from one of the bulb places and put them in there, daffodils are one thing that do really well here in the spring, and there's almost no labor involved. While pulling up the St. Augustine grass that had invaded, I scared up what I think must be a Rough Earth Snake. They're fairly common around here (more common than in Georgia, I guess, judging from that website) and they are kind of cute little things.

I'm not snake-phobic (at least for snakes that I know are non-venomous) and I'm happy to let my little population of Rough Earth Snakes (I know I have more than one because I've seen more than one at a time) live in my garden. (It may be because I have lots of earthworms - their food - in my garden. And another website says they eat slugs, which, if that's true, means that any Rough Earth Snake that wants to move into my yard is more than welcome here).

I also want to find some kind of nice "fall flowering" plant (maybe calendulas) and put them in that garden until I get the bulbs and put them in (I think November is the right time for that around here).

I find working in the garden very peaceful. I know some people like to listen to an iPod or something while they work but I don't; I like hearing the birds and (today, at least) hearing the quiet of my neighborhood.

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I bought a new pillow for my bed the other day. It's surprising how much a difference little things can make. I had been having neck and upper back trouble and I decided one possible source might be that the old fiberfill pillow I was using had got kind of flat and nasty. (It was a fairly old one; I think I had it even back in high school and it's been through the washer more than a few times).

So, on a trek out to do some other shopping, I stopped by the nearest "Bed Bath and Beyond" (which I cannot help thinking of as "Bloodbath and Beyond" because of that Simpsons episode). They had a lot of pillows. (Alas, all made in China. I looked at some of the down ones but then saw where they were made and thought, "Ew, Plague Birds" even though I suppose the down is sterilized before it goes in pillows).

I did wind up buying another fiberfill one (I have allergies, though not specifically to down). I have to say there must have been some real advances in fiberfill technology in recent years - this pillow is really nice and "squishy," it feels almost like a down pillow except it doesn't "pack down" the way some cheaper down pillows do.

And it's an "anti allergen" one - it has one of those miteproof covers, but doesn't feel plasticky.

I've been using it for a few days and my shoulders are better. So maybe the pillow was all it took. And there is something really nice about replacing something that was worn out (but you didn't realize it at the time) with something that's nice and new and works well.