Even though the summer has officially ended the temperatures are still quite balmy. The air cooled off enough though to just about eliminate the possibility of a hurricane. So we will have to wait until next year to test the integrity of the roof and efficiency of the storm sewers on our street.

With the end of the summer, vegetable gardening is going to recede into the background. Even though I could probably raise cooler weather vegetables ( and I will) I will stop with descriptions of my agricultural efforts. Just one last shot: okra, which has born an incredible harvest for me has lost most of its leaves now ( after reaching a height of 2 m). In addition to its high productivity, tolerance of high temperatures and resistance to herbivorous insects, I like it because it also has very pretty flowers.

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One additional reference to the past. Our last trip to the beach. We went on the labor day weekend and fearing crowds on the way to and at the Galveston beaches we headed instead a little bit farther west to Freeport. It takes almost two hours to get there, but the drive is very relaxing, essentially a highway running trough open fields, very little traffic. The town of Freeport is surrounded by refineries and chemical plants. Unless you are a chem.eng. student that is not very exiting and in addition there is usually less than attractive smell (part and parcel of refinery life). However, since the wind always blows from the sea, this is irrelevant once you get to the beach. You cannot see the refineries and more importantly you cannot smell them. The beaches are wide open and the water is incredibly warm. I feel like observing a moment of silence for Alice (she was taking the photo and so is not in the picture) who found herself in Calgary the following day and within a week had the first snow of the year.

The fall in Texas is the time of high school football games. In Texas, high school football is a very big deal. The football game itself is only a small part of a much larger spectacle which typically involves a larger number of people than an average Broadway show. Monica plays flute in the school marching band and the band provides noisy support before and during the game and also entertainment during the half time. The half time shows (there are two, because each school has its own band) involve not only the band (100 to 200 people strong) but also a large group of dancers (for lack of a better word). The whole show is choreographed rather intricately with the aim of creating complicated mobile patterns on the field. Sort of modern dynamic Nazca Plateau drawings.

One of the games in October was selected by Monica's school as the Homecoming Game. The exact logic of this still escapes me (as does most of the game of American Football) but it is an event with lots of additional ritual, culminating in a Homecoming dance. I am told the basic idea is to select a game when you are facing an opponent you a pretty sure to beat and then follow the victory with a big celebration. Well, sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. This time Monica's school actually lost but that did not stop anybody from celebrating.

The first step is to buy a rather quaint decorative item (fashioned after a chrysanthemum) and people walk around with these things pinned on all day. I have not researched the origin of this custom but it is doubtlessly a big boom to the local merchants because it costs about 70 dollars a piece. Coming as it is in the quiet period between the beginning of school and Christmas it must help the bottom line.

The Homecoming dance itself is a pretty formal affair, everybody gets dressed up. Apparently in some cases people really get carried away, hiring stretch limousines for the occasion. Considering that a limo company, when high school students are involved, usually insists on a whole day contract, it can be a very pricey proposition.

And finally, something completely different. The major street through the neighborhood has clumps of pine trees in the central divide. One of them forms a particularly good screen, which did not escape the local sheriff who daily sits there in his car trapping speeders. Since he does that on a daily basis everybody knows about it and as a result the 30 mph is strictly observed by all, except those who do not live here - they get trapped.

The other day we came out of our street, turned past sheriff's car and went on. Then we notice that he is behind us, lights flashing (no siren, because using your horn or similar device is a mortal insult that even the police avoids whenever possible). So we pull over, wondering what we did wrong. Well, it turned out that Kumiko left her sun glasses on the bumper and they fell off just as we were turning and the sheriff picked them up for her. In some respects, Houston definitely has a small town feel to it.