Compare & contrast

Remember when your English Literature teacher used to give that assignment? "Compare & contrast Crime & Punishment with The Scarlet Letter," something like that. I always hated that one. In Texas, we are having our 21st day of temps over 100, along with a record-setting drought. The weatherman said the other day that it's been over 200 days since we had an INCH of rain. ARRGGHH The whole state is toast! Just 3 years ago, we had Hurricane Ike. That storm went on, and on, all night. It knocked out our power for 16 days. And we woke up to this mess in the yard:

We had to deal with that broken tree limb ourselves - help was hard to find:
Now, we're staying inside, enjoying the air conditioning, and wishing/praying/hoping for rain. Here's a squirrel, cooling his jets in the cool dirt under our oak tree:
Several of our wood ferns look like goners, but they might bounce back:
Desperate times call for desperate measures, so I just got out the sidewalk chalk and wrote a plea on the driveway:
Don't worry, I remembered my manners:
If you can spare some in your area, please send us some rain!