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Here is the problem

  There is a puzzle piece missing. On the map that shows counties in which we have reported birds, there is one blank county, surrounded by counties where we have reported birds.  One county, that close to where we live.  (We live in the reddest county below it.)(In this case, red just means more birds reported.)(Although from a political perspective, this is Texas, they’re probably all red.) The solution:  A drive to Jim Hogg County.  Nine species reported, including white-tailed hawk.  Problem solved! Now, to deal with those other approximately eight thousand counties in Texas… 
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Oops

 We just hit 450 birds for the year.  The last four found were: Groove-billed AniMourning WarblerAlder FlycatcherAnd today, Yellow-throated Warbler I was thrilled to stumble into the Yellow-throated Warbler, but it’s September 30th.  If we happen to see another new bird in the next three months, there goes our nice round number.  
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My angry tweet of the day

 In Florida, the owners of a nursing home are being held criminally responsible for the deaths of their residents, because they didn’t exercise sufficient care and concern to protect them during and after a hurricane.  Who will be held criminally responsible for the deaths in Puerto Rico, not for those who died directly during the hurricane, but for the lack of care and concern afterwards?  
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Puerto Rico

 Puerto Ricans are U.S citizens.  It doesn’t require a passport or visa to travel to Puerto Rico from the mainland U.S.  As a Territory, they’re not a State, but they are part of the United States.   A week after the hurricane, our federal government is telling us Puerto Rico is an island, so it’s difficult to get aid there and distribute it because the infrastructure is ruined.  Wouldn’t that be part of any disaster plan; realizing that it would take extra effort to get aid to an island, and maybe even expect that the infrastructure would be ruined if the island takes a direct hit from a hurricane?  Meanwhile, we all see on the news what they’re going though.  They’re running out of food and water.  They have no sanitation; no communications.  In the heat and humidity of a tropical environment, they have no prospects for electric power for months.   People in Puerto Rico are helping each other as they can, but this is not a situation where they can just pull themselves up and restore a normal life.  The entire island was devastated.  The island can’t help itself.  Help has to come from somewhere else; like maybe their own federal government.  Fifty years ago, it didn’t matter where I was in the jungle, the Army got food and water to me every day.  It didn’t matter if there were roads and bridges, it didn’t matter if it was hard, they did what they needed to do and got it done. This doesn’t look like disaster recovery in Texas, Florida, or New York, but it looks a lot like Katrina.  It doesn’t look good.  
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We’ve moved on

 From the soft cast. To the hard cast. The recovery is going well.  Getting the old cast cut and pulled off was traumatizing, but after that, Judy got to spend a few minutes with her hand not in a cast at all.  They even gave her time to sooth and wash her hand under warm water.  The new cast is lighter and less painful.  She is free to move her fingers, but not her thumb.  Who need opposing thumbs anyway. Four weeks in the hard cast now; still keeping from doing anything that will make her arm sweat under the cast.  The calendar has turned to fall, but the weather is still hot in The Valley.  That means morning coffee on the deck while it’s only eighty outside, but back inside to the air conditioning by the time it hits ninety for the rest of the day; living her life one-handed, but not to worry, she has me; her left-hand man.