Last week's hailstorm

Last Wednesday night around midnight an impressive hailstorm blew through Austin from the west. It also had lightning, thunder, and high winds. I'm lucky not to have west windows, but the sideways hail did a lot of damage elsewhere. I found several hailstones that measured 2 inches across.

According to the newspaper, trees were down all over town; some landed on houses. The state Capitol grounds lost eight big old trees. I saw some of that damage from the bus today; if I get over there with my camera before it's all cleaned up I'll post a pic or two.

My neighborhood seems to have escaped the worst of it. A lot of branches came down, and one landed on the car in the picture at right. Nearly every west-facing window lost some glass. Two-inch hail does a lot of damage when it's being driven by tree-felling winds.

The impressive fallen tree below blocked a busy street for hours Thursday before the city crews could get the offending branches cut away and cleared. Removing the rest of it will be quite a chore for whoever owns that house.

I got in!

My paper, "Toward a Taxonomy of Frames", was accepted to the annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. I will be making a presentation of some sort at some point in the convention, which is Aug. 6-9, 2008, in Chicago. I haven't received the details yet.

Mainly because the airlines and the government are working hard to make air travel more and more difficult and oppressive, and partly because I can, I'll be going there on Amtrak. The main down side is that the terrain doesn't change -- it's prairie pretty much the whole way from Austin to Chicago. But, hey, the train!

UPDATED: Utah Phillips, 1935-2008

UPDATE: Utah Phillips died Friday night, May 23, at his home. He was a genuine folk hero, and like so many others, he left before his work was all done. Now it's up to the rest of us.

Obit and some remembrances here and here. Amy Goodman pays tribute at DemocracyNow. Labor Beat has a video tribute. (Thanks to Majikthise for the last set of links.)

Original post:

I just got back from a benefit concert for Utah Phillips, a folk singer, organizer, historian, humorist, raconteur and agitator who's been a personal hero of mine for a number of years now. Utah has had congestive heart failure for some time, but it took a turn for the worse in February, and he can no longer leave his home in Nevada City, California, to perform and earn a living.

A lot of folks have organized similar benefits across the country. If there's one in your area, go. You'll likely hear some good music and meet some fine folks.

The one here in Austin was organized by Veterans for Peace and my ability to , which appears to be a good group of people. Utah, himself, is a veteran of the Korean War, and his experience there was enough to turn him off of violence forever. Quoth he: "I will never again, in my life, abdicate my right and my ability to decide who the enemy is."

Utah recently said, via the Utah Phillips blog maintained by his son: "My body is weak but my will is strong, and I keep my disposition as sunny and humorous as I’m able. It’s hard enough being disabled without being cranky as well."

Donations can also be sent directly to Utah at P.O. Box 1235, Nevada City, CA 95959.

The photo above was taken from Utah's Web site, linked above. Photographer not named. The site itself is © 2000-2008 by Christopher Dunn.

Done!

I finished my final term paper and graded the last stories. All done as of Tuesday night. Got decent grades, too.

I've been taking it sort of easy since then. With luck and determination I'll catch up on this blog. I have pictures.

Oh boy

Now I have concrete evidence I've been at the computer too long.

I was sitting at my desk grading a student story on paper, and as I read to the bottom of a page, I ... pushed the Down arrow on the keyboard.

As soon as I'm done with this semester (10 more papers to grade, 1 term paper still not finished) I'm gonna do NOTHING for as long as I can manage it.