After watching rain showers bypass us on Tuesday, we managed to be in the way of a passing cloud yesterday. With an hour of steady rain, the ground soaked up every drop as fast as it fell. Sherry and I sat on the front porch and watched the amazing sight…Water…Falling from the sky…Then I went in and watched disk two of “Dune”…It seemed appropriate.

So waking up this morning and seeing this warning means I won’t be going out for my daily walk…

State environmental officials issued an air-quality alert today for Houston and coastal areas as dangerous ozone pollution creates hazardous conditions.

Today’s high temperature will be near triple digits and the low will be in the upper 70s under mostly sunny skies, according to the National Weather Service. South winds will be between 5 mph and 10 mph.

The Texas Commission on Air Quality said that ozone levels are expected to reach dangerous levels in Houston, Galveston and Brazoria counties. The air-quaility alert will last throughout today.

I am beginning to think early morning walks are worse than afternoon walks…While the temperatures are cooler ( high 70’s as opposed to high 90’s), the humidity makes it more work. This morning the humidity was at 68% with a temperature of 78°. By early afternoon the humidity will be down to 20%. Add in a breeze and it’s almost (ha ha) comfortable.

via Air-quality alert issued for Houston, coast | Front page | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle.

I  spent almost all day Tuesday installing a new database and reinstalling WordPress and importing the old posts over at North Carolina Mountain Dreams. I am still working at putting all of the pieces back together over there…You know, side bars and widgets and all of that bloggy stuff.

Next up is a cleaning up of the posts over there. I hope to pull out all of the non NC stuff and put it here. That will probably be messing up a few (probably very few) links on other sites…For that I am sorry. This is all part of a expansion of my Mountain Dreams “brand”. Something I am working on for the future…keep checking back…Early fall should see some more changes percolating up the web…

The one thing in the upgrade process that I still can’t figure out is how the plugin “Events Manager” manages to break my North Carolina site but not the Virginia site. Immediately upon activation in the new install, all the (what I assume is java) menus quit working. Disable the plugin and the menus are back. So…I uninstalled the plugin on both sites and will wait and see if their next update fixes the problem. I really liked the plugin and look forward to being able to use it in the future.

• @BlueRidgeblog How about a hot air balloon or a helicopter…Or you could attach a camera to a radio controlled plain. in reply to BlueRidgeblog #

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• New photoblog post: Mustang Grapes on Mustang Bayou http://bit.ly/mhIwG #

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If only there was a court to try the cases in…

So the House passed the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill. In political terms, it was a remarkable achievement.

But 212 representatives voted no…

And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldn’t help thinking that I was watching a form of treason — treason against the planet.

via Op-Ed Columnist – Betraying the Planet – NYTimes.com.

• New NC Mtn Dream blog post: Appalachian Summer Festival Video http://bit.ly/SkY1M #

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• New blog post: New Leaves http://bit.ly/LC6zm #

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• The weather outside my door makes me happy to be inside. An August preview in June does not a happy Texan make. Blue Ridge Mountains please! #

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