Elayne of Elayne’s Journal is celebrating her eighth blogiversary™ today. Unfortunately she’s doing it from a hospital bed because of kidney problems.

My congratulations and best wishes go out to her, as Blogger comments doesn’t like people with their own websites.

She joins a number of others on the “Injured / Reserve” list of blogtopia™:

• PZ Myers of Pharyngula is recovering from a heart procedure;
• Jams O’Donnell of Poor Mouth is recovering from knee surgery and an encounter with Satan Cat;
• Steve Bates of Yellow Something Something is still dealing with complications of a foot wound; and
• Fallenmonk just returned after a family medical emergency.

Getting old isn’t easy.

After more than two weeks of negotiations the political deals have been made that will continue the Labor Party’s tenuous hold on the reins of the government, according to the ABC – Labor day: Gillard retains grip on power

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she will pump almost $10 billion into regional programs after today scraping back into power with the support of two key independents.

Ms Gillard has pledged to work tirelessly for the Australian people and says she will try and find common ground with the Coalition as Labor heads into its second term in government.

Two independents today broke the political deadlock by giving their votes to Ms Gillard in a Labor minority Government. She has advised Governor-General Quentin Bryce of the developments.

One of the more important points in the negotiations, apparently, was the desire of the independents to have a government that would last for three years. Comments seem to indicate that they felt the Coalition would call early elections to consolidate their power [and eliminate the need for the independents].

The next major event will no doubt be the meeting of the Labor Party and the election of a leader. After this election I’m not sure that Ms Gillard is an automatic selection for the job. This is the sort of thing that makes the parliamentary system more interesting than the US system and keeps people involved.

I need a break as I tweak some bits from the upgrade yesterday.

Position: 31.6N 99.5W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: North [350°] near 16 mph [26 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 35 mph [ 55 kph].
Wind Gusts: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1003 mb.

Currently about 60 miles [95 km] South of Abilene, Texas. The storm has been downgraded to a Tropical Depression and is drenching Texas.

At 10:50PM CDT the National Hurricane Center announced that it had made its last advisory on the storm.

The storm made landfall at about 8:30PM CDT last night in Northern Mexico about 105 miles [170 km] North-Northeast of La Pesca, Mexico and about 40 miles [65 km] South of Brownsville, Texas.

All warnings and watches have been canceled.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]