Sitting on the front porch today. Humidity is at a high because of all of the rainfall lately… afternoon showers starting a couple of hours before noon caused by the high humidity and moisture off the gulf. It’s a bit of a self perpetuating cycle.

Way back in my early years it was the weather pattern for the Houston area. Every day during the height of summer, at quitting time, thunderstorms would move thru the area. It would rain just long enough to tie up traffic then stop… every day.

During some of those years I was driving a ’57 Chevy station wagon. That means, when it rained in the summer like that, you got wet. No AC in the car… so you left the window down or you sweated it out with the window up. Either way, you got wet.

A flash of red amongst the pink crepe myrtle blossoms. A cardinal cheeping it’s call before moving on across the yard… still cheeping.

A black swallowtail butterfly fluttering around above the roofline. A gentle movement of air around the yard… not enough to be a breeze, just barely enough to make the leaves move a bit.

The neighbor across the road is out early pushing a lawnmower. An older gentleman, he mows over a number of days before the heat gets too high. A small plane flies over to compete with the mower for dominance in the aural landscape. Cicadas in the pecan add their own level of buzz to the cacophony. As a noise, the mower isn’t much louder than the fan sitting at the end of the porch.

When I came outside this morning, the battery in my phone was dead. Makes it hard to compose these thoughts without the phone. No pictures, no muses flowing out into the ether. Luckily I stock a number of battery packs… if the grandkids and their mother haven’t drained them all and forgotten to plug them in.

The pack I’m using now has it’s own solar panel for keeping it charged. Though, truthfully, I’ve never charged it that way. In the time I’ve been sitting here using my phone and numerous apps, the power level has gone from 0% to 29%.

My cup of Joe has been empty for a while. It’s time to move inside and see if the world has burned overnight. Y’all stay safe, stay healthy, and Pray for our Nation…

While I’m not all that religious, I’m finding myself in need of some spiritual balance as the country tries to get past this hiccup in it’s progress…