Red sky at morning ...

... sailors take warning.

Motorists too should be careful if you are driving the interstates and highways of central Texas and even into Oklahoma. The horrific news as the dawn broke was the Greyhound bus fire south of Texas on I-45 in which at least 24 elderly patients, evacuees from the Gulf, died. Apparent cause of the fire was mechanical (brakes, apparently) at first, but the explosions were caused by oxygen tanks used by the passengers.

There are other dangers for those fleeing Rita's wrath: unfamiliarity with the roads, speeds at up to a crawl and the subsequent lack of fuel supplies to keep an exodus of over 1.5 million people moving. Can imagine that tempers may be getting just a bit short among some motorists after spending 12 to 24 hours on the same highways. Buddy, we'll pray for you to have patience!

Here in Okieland the radio stations are telling us to get ready for the onslaught of refugees -- and hell, yes, that's the right term for it! -- who are finding no more room at the inn in Texas. We don't mind them coming at all. Heaven knows enough Oklahomans make the trip to Texas often enough, although only a handful are ever running away from anything.

We've got a couple of hundred Katrina people around the Tulsa area we're helping assist. One woman has been adopted by our parish, has been given a car, lodgings have been found, and she's making application for a job and a new life 750 ft. above sea level. A former school bus driver in New Orleans, those famous photos of acres of buses underneath water may have helped convince her it was time to stay high and dry. We're glad to have her as a new neighbor.

Tulsa forecast today is a bit of a bummer. Hot and humid, again. But rain to the north of us will not likely get here, and Rita rains may not get here either thanks to a change of track. The good news is that we'll avoid a flood event. The bad news is that we need a good rain, again.

Back in New Orleans authorities are discovering how much rainfall the levees can really take and how much flooding upstream might affect the city of ghosts. Did we say ghosts? Seems like some military units are getting familiar with long-time Big Easy residents. (This is one video clip you gotta view.)

Farther north from the City of Big Shoulders (aka the Windy City, aka Chicago) comes a report of a new, improved superbug that has killed several children after suffering symptoms of a toxic shock like illness. Written in a rather sensational manner, the article notes that the children apparently contracted the germ by breathing it in. In the cases reported in Thursday's medical journal, the baby and two toddlers who died were otherwise healthy before they were separately admitted to a Chicago hospital with pneumonia-like symptoms between 2000 and 2004. Doctors believe the children probably inhaled the germ. ...

The cases show that this already worrisome staph germ has become even more dangerous by acquiring the ability to cause this shock-like condition.

"There's a new kid on the block," said Dr. John Bartlett of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, referring to the added strength of the superbug known as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
...

The children died within a week of being hospitalized and autopsies showed they suffered from shock and bleeding in the adrenal gland. The infections were caused by MRSA, which is usually not associated with the syndrome.

Until recently, drug-resistant staph infections were limited to hospitals and other health care settings where they can spread to patients with open wounds and cause serious complications.

Now everyone repeat after us: "We are not living in apocalyptic times, we are not living in apocalyptic times ..."

In recent farcical news, seven horses rears, er, Democratic governors are calling upon President Bush to investigate what they believe is egregious retail gasoline price gouging in the wake of Katrina. We happened to catch one of the equine posteriors, er, governors, talking with Fox Business News chief Neil Cavuto yesterday. Cavuto tried to explain the workings of the free market system, such as it is with the multiple layers of federal regulations piled on top of the energy industry. But to no avail as this governor (who should probably remain nameless but Nooooo!!!! It's BILL RICHARDSON, D-New Mexico) just shook his head and said, "I don't agree with you, Neil," and then explained that some academic egghead had figured it all out with charts and graphs and everything! A real scientist type of guy who knows the inner truth about the nefarious workings of the capitalist pigs who bleed the proletariat dry as they work with the Bushies and Halliburton to further the advance of the New World Order and the Anti-Christ.

Well, maybe he didn't go into that much detail, but it was pretty pathetic, and luckily the shoe we threw at the TV screen missed and only hit Mrs. Oklahomilist's planter, and that can be easily replaced -- maybe even before she notices the damage.

There's a lot more going on but we're gonna put the pool cover on this morning, and mow the back yard One. More. Time.