Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 61° F | 45° F 61° F | 56° F 76° F | 61° F 72° F | 58° F 70° F | 52° F It seems that 2008 is insistent on going out looking more like summer in the mountains than winter...Today has been…
According to Rob, I must have jumped the gun on his prediction for my horoscope. Aquarius Horoscope for week of December 25, 2008 Imagine you're driving down a very wide highway that's 50 lanes across even though there are no lines dividing one lane from another. Speed limit signs aren't…
FAR, far above the earth, the goddess of winter storms discovered mealy moths in her flour. Lifting the enormous bag, she staggered out of her cloud home and hurled the whole thing into the black sky above Wisconsin. Far below, Rudi Saxon was splitting wood behind his rural cottage. The…
From Coffee Muses A fifty year old Christmas Card greeting being sent from my family one more time just as it was in 1958. Merry Christmas all... I'll be doing the family bit for the next couple of days. Y'all enjoy the holiday and I'll catch ya on the other…
The MSM is full these days of stories of the demise of the MSM. Having argued continuously for limits in the ownership of news organizations I feel that a lot of these failings can be laid at the feet of the consolidators. As in most of the rest of the…
Sherry and I were in the car this morning heading to the grocery store for the weekly shopping and listening the Christmas music on the radio. I started thinking about what our children and grandchildren must think about the words to the traditional Christmas songs. I am sure my children…
Image by winzu via Flickr To get past the better half. WINEDALE — OK, I believe it. They’ve got me convinced. Here at the old country house in Washington County, winter has come to the front porch so I’ve moved inside by the fire. I’ve sat here and read three…
The deepening recession has eroded the financial standing and optimism of a broad swath of Americans, nearly two-thirds of whom say that they have been hurt by the downturn and that the country has slipped into long-term economic decline. In New Poll, 63 Percent of Americans Say They Have Suffered…
Coffee Muse I like coffee so much that I have tea for breakfast: The first cup of the day in particular is so good that I’m afraid I won’t be able to properly appreciate it when I am half-asleep. Therefore, I celebrate it two hours later when I am fully…
Most of the evening we have been having snow flurries off and on. This following a day of falling temperatures and sleet. Considering that when I went to bed last night the temperature had just fallen into the 60's, having snow starting to accumulate is kinda strange. From air conditioning…
Already in free fall, the price of oil could soon push much lower as the effects of a global recession take hold. Crude fell $3.12, or 6.7%, to settle at $43.67 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday. Many oil-industry insiders and traders now say prices could…
The irreverence of designers...
How do we manage to stay healthy in this season? Yesterday at this time it was in the 30's, the wind was out of the north. This morning it's 67 and the wind is balmy and out of the south. My poor sinuses can not figure out what they need…
Image via Wikipedia I missed this last Friday when it played on the local PBS station...It's nice to be able to catch it later on the "intranets"... Bill Moyers and Michael Pollan...What a pair. A very in-debth exploration of food policy in America ensued. Here is just a part... BILL…
Though coffee drinkers may be cutting back on the expensive drinks, they still are consuming as much as they did last year — an average 3.3 cups a day per person, according to a June study by the National Coffee Association of U.S.A. The study of the $39.5 billion industry…
We are heading to my mom's to be with all of the family...So I leave just this... If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice. ~Meister Eckhart
It looks like just about everyone in the house now has the flu...except me (knock on wood). What a great lead-in to the Thanksgiving Feasting. Tomorrow we head to my mom's where my clan and Sherry's will gather around a number of tables to see if we can get through…
Day 22 Post Freeman Three weeks and a day, the vacation is over...What now? I am still a long way from figuring out what the rest of my life will be...I guess the symbolical nature of the season and the state of my life are in sync. It's the little…
Reading my morning emails brought me this... 5 Myths About Our Ailing Health-Care System America has the best health care in the world. Somebody else is paying for your health insurance. We would save a lot if we could cut the administrative waste of private insurance. Health-care reform is going…
It's a heck of a note when the week before Thanksgiving the weather is perfect for Bar-b-Que...Only in Texas.
Food is a microcosm of the macrocosm. Eating the right food is part of the solution to the problems of climate change and global hunger.(1) Resurgence Magazine is focusing on Food this month. I often find myself drawn to the subject of food...Not necessarily for reasons that would appear obvious.…
At about 4pm on Monday afternoon this was what the Weather Underground had to say about the conditions here... Current Conditions Alvin, Texas (PWS) 68.9 °F / 20.5 °C Clear Humidity: 17% Dew Point: 22 °F / -5 °C Wind: 0.0 mph / 0 km/h Wind Gust: 0.0 mph /…
Verlyn Klinkenborg has something to say about what's happened to our view of the stars at night...He starts out this way... If humans were truly at home under the light of the moon and stars, we would go in darkness happily, the midnight world as visible to us as it…
Currently (on Sun 5:53AM CST from Pearland Regional Airport) Clear Temp: 36° Dewpoint: 34° Wind: Calm MPH After a gorgeous day yesterday, the sun is rising over the start of what looks to be another...Just cooler. This day looks and feels a lot like Saturday morning last week in…
Driving toward Kerrville along the Guadalupe River somewhere west of Hunt... From Coffee Muses
I have been out of the Photo Friday habit lately...It's time to jump back in... From Coffee Muses From the past weekend. On Saturday we drove south out of Fredericksburg along Highway 16. This has always been one of my favorite drives in Texas. Along the way we stopped at…
After years of having a daily routine, finding myself lacking one is more than a little uncomfortable. Getting up and having breakfast without that normal get out the door deadline has left me disoriented to say the least. Add to this the weather since we returned home from our trip,…
Turning The Page Sherry and I had scheduled this past weekend as a four day celebration a long time ago. Making sure we both had arrangements to take Friday and Monday off appproved and on the calendars at work. Gifts were bought, resrvations were made, plans were set...we were celebrating…
The Guardian has this to say about yesterday... They did it. They really did it. So often crudely caricatured by others, the American people yesterday stood in the eye of history and made an emphatic choice for change for themselves and the world. Though bombarded by a blizzard of last-minute…
Leon Hale's weekly column this morning reached back to before my birth...But, he touched a chord even so. The final lines though really rang true... I guess what got me going on television is that just lately we installed a new set in the old country house at Winedale. One…
While my friends on the Blue Ridge are climbing out of bed this morning and firing up their stoves to beat back the cold we finaly greeted some nice fall weather. The temperature this morning as I sit and write this is 46°. The sky is clear and we should…
Put that fruit juice down and grab a Coke. Haven't you heard? High-fructose corn syrup -- the ubiquitous sweetener found in everything from soft drinks to ketchup -- isn't bad for you at all. It's true, because I saw it on TV. The story behind the corn industry's cloying ad…
Only in Houston could you hear a 66° temperature referred to as a "chilly autumn morning". All summer I've been amazed by the weather prognosticators descriptive adjectives. The mid-nineties and ozone warnings does not a beautiful fall day make...At least not in my book. I will admit a couple of…
What happens when credit markets seize up? We are beginning to see the result now: Businesses can't expand or don't open, houses aren't bought or sold, and economic growth slows to a crawl. In minority communities, where banks once welcomed residents' deposits but refused to lend to them, similar economic…
Poverty (also called penury) is deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, and may also include the deprivation of opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty, and/or to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens. According to…
Paul Krugman, a professor at Princeton University and an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Monday. “It’s been an extremely weird day, but weird in a positive way,” Mr. Krugman said in an interview on his way to a…
Sitting here before sunup with the french doors open in the kitchen...Bird calls and air cool enough to keep the AC from kicking on (at least for an hour or so) wafting through with the aroma of the mornings coffee. The temperature is almost 70 again heading for the mid…
For the first time in the back half of the year it really does feel like autumn this morning...We are even feeling like the mountains I long for... Alvin, TX 55.0 °F / 12.8 °C Clear Boone, NC 51.7 °F / 10.9 °C Drizzle Floyd, VA 53.4 °F / 11.9…
Traffic signals at about 1,200 Houston area intersections were not yet working Tuesday but should all have at least a flashing red light by the end of next week, said Mike Marcotte, the city's director of public works and engineering. "I've been amazed with the courtesy our drivers have been…
After the storm, once you realize you've lived through another, your awareness of your surroundings is contracted. You begin by wandering around just your own little space surrounding your home...Checking for damage, fixing the immediate needs if possible. Then you begin to expand your awareness to your neighbors. First you…
We got our power and phones back last night. The neighbors are still dark. I don't know exactly what the it is the government learned from Katrina, but living through their opinion of a well run after disaster relief effort I am unimpressed. Ike plowed through here like a farmer…
This isn't looking very good...Again. The latest 12Z (8 am EDT) computer models continue to show that Ike will track northwest into the central Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, there has been a major shift in the model tracks for Thursday and Friday. All of the models…
With Hurricane Ike set to travel nearly the length of Cuba today before heading into the Gulf of Mexico, residents from Texas to Florida face another week of worrying about whether their communities will fall in the storm's path. Some public officials said Sunday they are concerned that the frequency…
Happy Papaw with newest addition to the family tree... Cameron Jay September 5, 2008 And with beaming Grandma And shortly it'll be back to the hospital.
I sit here this morning for the first time in months having my morning coffee with the door open and the sounds of birds and dogs and squirrels serenading me. The temperature has dipped into the upper 60's. Can winter be far off? I am alone in the house this…
The drive to hire private contractors to take over duties performed by state employees in agencies under the oversight of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission — mandated by the Legislature five years ago — has been a slow-motion disaster. The commission was forced to terminate a major contract…
It's been quite busy the last week. Most of my online time is being spent working on updating my Genealogy Site...So here's a couple of pictures from the weekend... And later in the day... Later folks...
For all of you folks up north feeling the beginnings of fall in the air, here is my morning forcast of what faces me on the way out the door... Bobby Wright, Alvin, Texas (PWS) Updated: 2 sec ago Clear 79.7 °F / 26.5 °C Clear Humidity: 66% Dew Point:…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Hurricane Gustav continues plowing inland, and is now just a Category 1 hurricane. The storm surge has peaked and is falling in New Orleans and along the Mississippi coast. A storm surge of 12 feet was recorded at Northeast Bay Gardene, and surges of…
...Eye of Gustav nearing the Louisiana coast...hurricane force winds over portions of southeastern Louisiana... A Hurricane Warning remains in effect from just east of High Island Texas eastward to the Mississippi-Alabama border...including the city of New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain. Preparations to protect life and property should have been completed.…
Just to keep up with the updates I started with this storm...
Over the years in the convention business, I've spent a bit of time in the city of New Awlins. I have friends who call the city home. I have co-workers who called the city home and now live in Houston. So I am saddened to see the area in the…
It's passing Cuba and the models are looking more and more like rain, rain, rain...Even if we miss the winds!
In 2005 the eye of Hurricane Katrina seemed to spare the low-lying neighborhoods of New Orleans as it moved to the east into Mississippi. Relief was short-lived as the backhanded surge of water from the storm breached levees and created an urban catastrophe that exposed fatal flaws in the nation's…
NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Gustav strengthened into a dangerous storm today, and as city officials started evacuation plans, some residents weren't waiting to be told to leave. Cars packed with clothes, boxes and pet carriers drove north among heavy traffic on Interstate 55, a major route out of the city.…
I have always loved Fractals. I began playing with the earliest computer generation programs when I got my first PC. I have installed new programs on every PC I have ever owned. But I have never created anything like this... Chaoscapes from Rocco Helmchen on Vimeo.
Here it comes... MIAMI — Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami say Gustav has again strengthened into a hurricane. At around 2:15 p.m. CDT Friday, data showed the Category 1 storm had top sustained winds of around 75 miles per hour, and was still on track to hit…
Image via Wikipedia I don't know why these guys worry...My wife has already sent Gustav packing... Don't freak out about the newest models, but... The latest computer models have been released and they reflect a distinct shift westward, toward Texas, for Hurricane Gustav's path. This almost certainly presages a similar…
Hurricane Rita Image by alpoma via Flickr As of this morning at 7am this was the latest on what was happening with our tropical weather As the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina nears, federal, state and local officials along the Gulf Coast are keeping a wary eye on Tropical Storm…
Image via Wikipedia The weather here has been very dry...at least until the past week or so. We have been having a spring-like amount of rain. After complaining for so long about the lack, it seems almost sacrilegious to say anything about the water we needed so bad. After months…
In the midst of August, spring appears to have triumphantly — if temporarily — returned to Houston. Steady rainfall has delivered a blessed week of lower-than-normal temperatures, and Tuesday's high reached only 81 degrees, which is more typical of late April than mid-August. Wednesday's mercury reached a comparatively warm 84,…
Anything Wendell Berry writes is worth the time it takes to digest...My recommendation is to go spend some time today with the man... The general reaction to the apparent end of the era of cheap fossil fuel, as to other readily foreseeable curtailments, has been to delay any sort of…
Up on the mountain behind my house, the wild blueberries are ripe and prolific. It’s public land, part of the Maine state-park system, so the berries are free for the picking. In a half-hour or so, if I’m lucky, I can fill a tin cup with enough berries for breakfast,…
CARSON, NEW MEXICO—When the wind comes up the mesa, which it often does, there is a particular rusted-out old car nearby that whispers the same eerie, long-toned question every time: “Whoooooo?” I sometimes think: “Us.” Out in this remote part of the American Southwest lies the closest thing I have…
Obama is the first political figure since Carter to understand the energy efficiency and conservation approach and actually try to present it to the American people. Republicans want to nip it in the bud -- that's why they are so aggressively jumping on the tire gauge thing. They want to…
Leaving the house this morning the temperature was already passing 80°. August in SE Texas may not be as hot as other places in the country, but factor in the humidity and it ain't pretty. The prognosticator on the radio was holding forth about a high today of 96°...But then…
It just goes to show you, when the government doesn't believe in regulations...Regulations go by the wayside and enforcement becomes mute... Whole Foods Market pulled fresh ground beef from all of its stores Friday, becoming the latest retailer affected by an E. coli outbreak traced to Nebraska Beef, one of…
I am working on moving my original blog to a new home. A lot of tweaking and redoing things I forgot doing two years ago...I'll probably be posting and polising the chrome over there for a few days (or weeks)...If you want to check up on me try me at…
Why Paul Roberts' End of Food deserves to be digested by policy makers and local-food activists alike | By Tom Philpott | Grist | Victual Reality | 08 Aug 2008 The Locavore's Dilemma Why Paul Roberts' End of Food deserves to be digested by policy makers and local-food activists alike…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Ohio Sues Over Trouble With Voting Machines - washingtonpost.com During the May primary, Brunner said officials in Butler County, north of Cincinnati, realized that 150 votes were dropped when they were being transferred from memory cards. When Brunner looked into it, she found that…
I ran across this looking for a musician referenced on Americana Roots Radio yesterday. I tried it in the sidebar but it didn't work too well...So I'll post it here. There are some really good artists in the play list, so have a listen... Texas Back Porch Station 5428 at…
Could McCain possibly have received a better response to his "Celebrity" ad than this? See Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad and more funny videos on FunnyOrDie.comSee more funny videos at Funny or Die For the first time in my life I have to say...You go girl...
Up early to check on the status of Edouard...Looks like a miss for my house...Heading inland already on the Louisiana border. Should miss the majority of the Houston area, rain and moderate winds only. Sherry has headed for work already...Television on, radar on the monitor... Happy Birthday Wendell Berry It's…
All eyes in this area are watching the developements in the Gulf. It looks like we will be feeling the effects of the approaching storm tomorrow in the early pre-dawn hours. Hopefully, the storm will live down to the predictions and not become the storm it could be. All in…
The Pleasurable Choice Is the Ethical Choice I like to say that I'm not an an optimist, but I am a person of hope. That is to say, I cultivate the virtue of hope in myself. Hope takes account of the enormity and darkness of challenges and problems, and yet…
This project began as so many good things do, over a cup of coffee. So begins the preface to Rebooting America, Ideas for Redesigning American Democracy for the Internet Age. Dana Boyd blogged about the availability of the download this morning and I pulled the pdf down before leaving the…
First things first --- Happy Birthday Sherry. I know you never read these muses...but hell, I'll still say it here. The best present I ever got... Now to the subject of this muse...Heat. It's hot here, it's hot across the south, it's hot on the Blue Ridges of North Carolina…
The Podcast I listened to yesterday that really caught my interest was this one... Tiny Texas Cafe Fills Up After Barbecue Award : NPR All Things Considered, July 18, 2008 · Barbecue is religion in Texas. Every five years, Texas Monthly goes on a quest for the Holy Grail —…
The "Party" on Saturday had all of the appearances of being a success. By the time the house was empty and the ticky-tacky leftovers were put away I could once again hit the lazy-boy and reflect on the past couple of weeks of labor and feel good that it was…
...addicting...go play. Thanks Kate...
Around these parts most of our ripened fruit happened a month or better ago. The only thing still to come are the pecans in the fall. Even so the following resonates... The Suburban Life - Thinking Ahead - Editorial - NYTimes.com It’s a good year for blueberries. Decades ago, a…
The drive home yesterday was blustery but dry with lots of high clouds and rain showers off in the distance. Hurricane Dolly's approach to the Texas coast was being felt first far north of the expected landfall. The first bands of showers croosed Galveston Island early yesterday morning. The drive…
I finally bit the bullet and upgraded this site to the new WordPress 2.6...I thought I was locked out of my own site...It took two days to figure out why I could not log in...user name and password were right...log in again was the prompt...over and over again...then on a…
Pardon the parsity of the recent posts. I find myself in that strange world of being in between. After thirty-five years at the same company (yes, most of my co-workers weren't even born when I started), I find my skills and knowledge not as welcome as they were. Management changes…
Magnum, P.C.: PI rule for computer techs doesn't benefit public | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle Last year the Texas Legislature passed a law requiring anyone who retrieves data from a computer, analyzes it and makes a report to a customer to have a private investigator's license. The law is a…
Overnight Thompson's price per kilowatt-hour went from 11.8 cents with the now-defunct retailer National Power to 31.7 cents with CPL Retail Energy. During the 19 days last month he had to wait before he was switched to a lower priced plan, he ran up a $385 bill. Top wholesale power…
Ever since Sept. 11, I have been of a contrarian. I never felt that the date had changed anything other than our own misguided perception of our own safety. A perception I did not share then. Now I read that my views are shared by, at least some of, those…
