There was no sunrise this morning. A cool blustery darkness greeted my appearance on the back porch. It was so dark for so long I had trouble sipping from my insulated travel mug. I couldn’t see the hole in the top… black on black in an unaccustomed blackness. And to top it off, I even hit the snooze bar a couple of times this morning.

I couldn’t even see the whistling duck mob as it flew over, though from their calls there was a real big group this morning. And the lingering dawn has given our neighborhood owl time to serenade me with it’s who…who…whooo.

It also gave me time to check in with my morning blog buddies scattered across the country as I awaited the coming of enough light to catch the cloudscapes that will mark this day.

It rained a bit overnight to accompany the cooler air flowing in. These are the days I look forward to each year. The first cool after days of warm to hot. A weather change day.

As a youngster I looked forward to the blue norther’s that would barrel down out of Canada each fall. Going from hot to cold in an hour, a black wall of clouds rushing down upon you out of the north. That blackness on the northern horizon, growing, growing… getting thicker and taller until suddenly your world was filled with the smell of refineries… the one bad thing about living south of the Houston ship channel. Just a few mile north of my boyhood home stood the Champion paper mill… on odorous place I’d their ever was one.

One of the advantages of living in Alvin this past quarter century is missing the close proximity to refineries I grew up surrounded by. For those who never experienced smells like that… let me say, the 1950’s thru the 1970’s were decades to be smelled… but, never missed.

Time to go wake up another grandkid… y’all stay safe, stay healthy, and Pray for our Nation and the world. Wear a mask and go out and vote.