Here it is, the hottest month of the summer, and kids are headed back to school. For some reason there were several yellow busloads of young kids in navy slacks/shorts/skirts and white tops on the Tulane campus today. (My work area is right by the front windows, so I get to see a lot.)

And speaking of return to school, they are really cutting it close on the widening and resurfacing of my street's first block. I'm not sure when school starts in St. Tammany Parish, but even though the drainage has been put underground on one side of the road, the paving has just begun. They're scraping the old stuff down to the dirt, so it should last for a couple of years or so before different parts sink a bit and the potholes appear.

I know someone (sort of) whose daughter (who took swimming from me one summer) is going to Tulane on a basketball scholarship this fall. I need to call her to let her know I'm in there generally three days a week in case she needs to get something there for her daughter.

Last night I managed to catch sight of the raccoon. It's a big one--probably at least 30 lbs. (He's noticeably larger than Fabian, and he's 21 lbs.) He stopped at the garage and looked at me, trying to decide whether to keep going or wait till I went back inside and then get back to eating the cat food he'd "found" in the ice chest.

Tomorrow will no doubt be another hot one. I shan't be concerned--I'll be in an air-conditioned car when I'm driving, and in an air-conditioned building all day.