I just spent the last couple of hours reliving the subliminal sounds from my formative years. I know they were't my parents sounds...I can't say where I ever heard them during those years of the '60's. But they are the sounds and songs that resonate more than most for some…
Pledge to the Republicans Print or type your name And your home address All of it Dear former Republican friend: This letter is to let you know that your Party’s tactics of destroying the ability of our government to function by means of your no-tax increase-pledge is too recklessly destructive…
Fraser Fir, Image via Wikipedia Sitting on the front porch, outside my office window (how strange it is to be able to say that), is an artificial pre-lit Christmas tree. It is the one we used in the house a few years back that was replaced last year by a thin tree…
58% - Portion of Americans over age 18 who drank coffee yesterday 3.4 - Number of cups of coffee people identified as “coffee drinkers” drink per day National Coffee Drinking Trends Study, The National Coffee Association of U.S.A. Inc., 2011 via Coffee isn’t always bad for you - The Washington…
"If I should have a daughter, instead of Mom, she's gonna call me Point B ... " began spoken word poet Sarah Kay, in a talk that inspired two standing ovations at TED2011.
This will be the last video in the series on our home building project...Demolishing the old... https://youtu.be/yBklqUTnMs0?si=oFuqKg1aT_xgFyEj Now...It's on with life and settling in. Thanksgiving at my mom's and Christmas here with the kids and grand-kids.
At least everything but the unpacking. After over a year of planning and meetings and dust and dirt the new house is done and the old house has gone away. Here is a view from the road on Monday... And here is the view today... I would have thought I…
We passed a milestone yesterday when we said goodbye to the bright yellow modern equivalent of my grandparents "Quarter Moon". In other words, they picked up the "port-a-potty" that has graced our site since June. The construction portion of this ongoing project is, for all intents and purposes, complete. There…
While my home state has never been at the forefront of environmental consciousness, the news in the electrical generating front is finally turning toward the green. After an initial rush to install wind farms in west Texas that outstripped the ability of the utilities to utilize the capacity, the addition of new…
Just last week
Tipper was talking about "Tater Soup" which brought back all kinds of childhood memories. Reading her post from the southern Appalachians had my nose and taste buds fooling my brain into thinking there really was cornbread in the oven and tater soup on the stove.
That's what food memories are like, total immersion into the recesses of your brain. A smell caught in passing that can trigger the memories of meal long gone and the loved ones who cooked them for you. That food memory of tater soup and cornbread can be laid to my Grandma...My mother's mother. I don't really remember eating it all that often with my grandparents but I ate it enough to know that my mother's recipe came from Grandma.
Tipper's post triggered decades of memories and tastes and smells...The old country kitchen in Orchard where many of my childhood food memories were made...The small kitchen in the home where I grew up... The jars and jars of fig preserves under the counter. Made lovingly by Grandma in the hottest of summer heat and sent home with us every year to heap on buttered toast through the winter. Deer steaks fried in the pressure cooker for lunch along with the fresh vegetables from the garden out back...creamed squash...fried okra...green beans...creamed corn...Memories tumbling down through time.
Heavy rains for drought-stricken Texas A slow-moving low pressure system brought the heaviest rains of the year to large portions of rain-starved Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas over the weekend. Radar-estimated rainfall amounts reached eight inches over portions of Texas between Dallas and Abilene. Houston got 20% of their rain for…
Thanks to John Scalzi for the lead.
One of my favorite music spots on the web is Wolfgang's Vault. I get weekly emails from them as they release new concerts from the archives. Today they sent out a link to this concert from 1972. After listening to the music as I read email and scanned the news…
It looks as if all of the rain from Tropical Storm Lee has managed to miss my part (and most of the rest) of Texas. We were really hoping to have a couple of days of the wet, soggy stuff falling on our heads... It didn't happen that way so…
The number of people moving through the house this past week has higher than at any other time since we began. Stone work, texture, cabinets, trim carpenters, painters, electricians, plumbers, counter-top measurement techs, storage building delivery...It's been almost nonstop. We finished it off with a birthday party on Saturday afternoon...Whew. https://youtu.be/o5Ms6CSARg4 Happy…
This week the inside has begun to look as much like a house as the outside has for a couple of weeks now... Sometime in the next few days the rock will get put on the front. The mud guys will be finishing up on Monday. Then it's time for…
After watching a far off lightning show on Wednesday evening yesterday morning brought a wondrous sight...A rather large thunderous rainstorm blew through our immediate area. The winds blew, lightning blasted the ground over and over again setting car alarms off all over town and then it rained for a couple of hours at…
It's been another week of work on the house. The main projects have been plumbing fixes, septic install, and blowing in the wall insulation. Morning coffee on the back porch hasn't been very comfortable due to the heat...But checking out the progress each day has been fun... Today they delivered…
Here lately I've been taking my morning coffee out to the back porch of the new house most mornings. I noticed something this morning that had been kind of bothering me even as it hadn't processed yet...The birds are not singing the sun up these days. Don't get me wrong,…
Thats why the Nash Prairie matters so much. As Chronicle reporter Matthew Tresaugue reported Tuesday "Life abounds at states last surviving bit of coastal prairie," Page B1, July 26, the 400-plus acres of never-plowed land in Brazoria County remained pristine by historical accident: The Czech and German immigrants who first…
As the temperatures here in Texas hover around the century mark and the heat indexes are pushing 115 on a regular basis, I can understand the attraction of running for President in the NE. Reporting from Greenland, N.H.— All eyes were supposed to be on Iowas straw poll Saturday, but…
It has been hot, and most of this weeks work has been inside...Wiring, plumbing, HVAC. The exterior siding is now complete, with the exception of a little stone work. Between builders and workers and inspectors and grand-kids...Time is flying.
For the third day in a row, Texas power grid operators have declared a Level 1 energy emergency, calling on all available power generators, tapping power from neighboring grids and asking customers to conserve their usage. And the Weather Underground is reporting this: Temperature 96.1 °F Feels Like 112 °F via Fuel Fix » Here…
For most of the past week things seemed to be moving a bit slow, even as progress was made each day...Then suddenly it is really starting to look like a house. Today the roofers are putting on shingles and the cornice crew is doing siding. I really feel sorry for…
I know it's a mixed metaphor, but the GOP has really become a sad, sad representation of the old saying... You can lead a mule to water but you can't make him drink. “I am committed to not raising the debt ceiling,” Bachmann said at a National Press Club luncheon,…
Watching the house grow out my back door has been a sight this past week. We went from bare studs standing across the slab to something that only lacks a roof deck to look like a real house. But, after the initial mad dash of construction, it looks like visible…
The framing crew went home early after waiting a couple of hours for the rain to stop. They managed to get about three hours of work done before the rain stopped them though. Here is a quick video... I can only hope they can get more done today...
Want to know what it takes to make it rain in your neighborhood? Start a construction project. My corner of SE Texas has been in a drought for over a year... Longer than many of the surrounding areas. We had almost no measurable rainfall in the first half of 2011.…
There is a house growing in my backyard and I find my attention drawn to the activity for long periods each day. This is how it went in the last week and a half: So if I seem to turn up missing for longer than normal periods of time than…
