You Won!

It’s “big announcement” day, but first of all I have to thank Kris Yankee for gracing my blog with her presence last week.

As promised (ta da…big announcement!), Kris is giving away a copy of her book, Saving Redwind. And the winner is…Janet Johnson.

Janet, Kris will email you to work out the details. You’re going to love her book.  Congratulations on your winning comment!

On a somber note, wildfires are destroying my part of Texas. The nearest fires are about an hour away, but with wildfire that can be much too close. Several lives have been lost.  In the past 48 hours nearly 700 homes have been destroyed. Some of the fires that erupted over the weekend are in populated suburbs of Austin. Despite the best efforts of firefighters from all over the state, many of the fires are still uncontained. Schools in the affected areas have been closed so that they can serve as shelters for people recently made homeless. It is a horrible situation.

If you hear someone from Texas saying that we need a good hurricane, we aren’t joking. If we could just get a hurricane’s torrential rains dumped onto Central Texas, it would be such a relief. If the hurricane winds could just skip over the Gulf Coast, it would be even better.  We have friends with “lakefront” property whose boat docks are now hundreds of feet from the water. Yes, the lakes are that low. There are reservoir lakes west of us that are completely empty. You can walk across the lakebed and never get your feet wet. It is a dire situation, and one that will be continuing for some time to come. There is no rain in the forecast (again) for the next 10 days.

I could go on about the dreadful drought conditions and the devastating fires, but I think you get the picture. If you believe in appealing to a Higher Power, Texas could use some prayer right now.