Today I slept in. By rights, I should be on the back porch. But, late as it is, the back porch is soaking up sun. And with the temperature already above 80 degrees, I’ll take the shady side of the house.

I find myself spending more time actually musing this morning than writing about my muse. It’s a quiet, birdsong filled morning. Squirrels are scampering up and down the trees in play. Woodpeckers are beating a rhythm in the canopy. While mourning doves coo their sad, quiet call, fledglings beg for food in the bushes.

Off on the bypass I can hear the deep rumble of a large group of motorcycles. It’s the perfect day for a run in the country. Unless the prognosticators are correct, then it might be a good time to shelter in place and avoid the afternoon showers. Sadly, in our time of pandemic, the biker bars aren’t open to sit out the rains.

Off, way off, in the distance a train is whistling up a crossing coming thru town. Alvin sits at the junction of two rail lines. One follows Highway 6 thru Alvin heading to Galveston. It is joined by a line coming out of Houston along Highway 35. Just south of town another rail line splits off and heads southwest down the coast eventually passing through Bay City and parts further away. It makes for a lot of rail traffic moving thru during normal times.

For many years we would have the circus train passing through once a year. Back in the buildup to the Iraq war, train loads of tanks and Humvees passed by regularly. When the wind power companies started booming it was flatbed car after flatbed car of super long windmill blades. They would stretch over multiple cars. The crazy thing is… I can’t see the tracks from my home. I only catch sight of a very few loads as I’m out and about.

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It’s really late… Y’all stay safe, stay healthy, and Pray for our Nation and the World.