We had waves of thunderstorms overnight and will probably have more this morning. By this gray morning light I can see the plants and they seem to have come through the night with little or no damage. But things need to dry out a bit before I get more gardening done.

I did take a little walk outside to check on the plants more closely. A few have had petals knocked off and a couple look a bit bedraggled but on the whole--all looks good. I have mentioned before that the gardens I imagine in the late winter and try to plant in the early spring are never the gardens I end up with in the fall. Well, that is more true this year than in any other year. I emptied and removed the one large round pot that had developed cracks in the sides and two of the large rectangular containers that also were worse for wear. I have one more to do but that needs to wait for things to dry out. I am rather disappointed in the pot and the containers. I have other round pots and had several large containers repurposed from storage boxes and those all weathered the conditions on the patio far better. I had one storage box planter that lasted five years before they had to be replaced. The ones I am removing didn't make two full years. The manufacturers are making them cheaper and it shows. I am replacing all of those containers with 5-gal buckets. Some of those I have had for 10+ years and, though showing wear, none of those are failing.

Tom Englehardt has another good post and he may be quite right: when our grossly overhyped Global War on Terror winds down (ends? maybe? hopefully?) we may be left with an "empire of nothing." No infrastructure (unless it benefits #45's rich friends and the govt pays most of the costs so they can harvest the profits), no education (unless, once again, his rich friends can skim off obscene profits), no health care (ditto), and.... . I won't continue--you can fill in the blanks yourself.