When I got up this morning the weather had gone back to summer mode...The temperature was pushing 73° before sunup. Now, twelve hours later we are still at 83°. Even though the temperatures are still summer-like, the light out is definitely fall-like. There is a hazy smoky look to distant…
It looks like I've had one of my domains phished spoofed. All morning long the spam folder has been filling up with undelivered mail receipts. Since around 5am this morning there have been over 2,000 undelivered messages. Almost makes you wonder how many must have gotten through. I am sure…
Galveston, Texas as the sun comes up over the Gulf of Mexico on a fall Sunday morning... This week's challenge: 'The Beach'. Please read our Participant Guide before deciding to submit a link. Your link must be to a static page that will always show your challenge image, and not…
It stole in for just a short stay and stole away in the same quiet way. The mornings weather station report was 74° at 6am. Here we are sneaking up on the autumnal equinox and the temperatures are on the rise again. It's just a few degrees difference, but my…
This morning was another of those mornings when the weather outside is livable. Too bad it will not last... Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 91. Heat index values as high as 102. East wind between 5 and 10 mph. +++++++++++ Andy Griffin is on roll with another essay…
When I wandered in to the kitchen for that first cup of coffee this morning the weather station on the shelf informed me that the outside temperature was at 70°. I didn't even bother to look at the humidity so I can't report what it might have been but the…
I began thinking of the wordsmiths I enjoy who make their primary living working on the farm. I haven't made it a point to search these folks out, but maybe I should. There is something about the solitude of farm work that seems to allow the wordsmiths it produces to let their words steep and age before they commit them to paper (or electronic replacements thereof).
Had I written that sentence in my earlier years someone would have answered "between the "A" and the "T" to remind me about ending a sentence with a proposition or some such semi-remembered sentence structural rule. Now, in my crotchety elderhood, I just do it anyway... The drive home from…
Humberto Update: Wunder Blog : Weather Underground A surprise Hurricane Humberto ripped into Texas near the Louisiana border this morning, bringing winds of 85 mph and torrential rains to the coast. Humberto didn't even exist yesterday morning, and grew from a tropical depression at 11am EDT to a hurricane just…
It's Wednesday on the SE Texas coast in September which means there is a stalled out "cold" front somewhere in the neighborhood. The upshot that is we will be adding to our 18" surplus of precipitation for a few days as the weather system tries to sort out it's conflicted…
Our cooler, wetter summer sharply cuts West Nile cases | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle Along with greener lawns and lower water bills, this summer's abundant rainfall is being credited with one more benefit: fewer human cases of West Nile virus."This season has been very different from last year," said Sandy…
There has been talk the past few days by the weather prognosticators of a cold front heading for these parts. Now granted, at this time of year a weather change that lowers the high temperatures into the mid 80's for a day or two passes for a cold front. Me,…
Jim Hightower | CORPORATE AMERICA’S “CHEAP” IMPORT ADDICTION Let's be honest. China’s trillion-dollar-a-year export economy is based squarely on the country’s deliberate lack of humane standards. That’s precisely why our CEO’s rushed over there – every corner cut, every penny taken from workers and the environment, every product made on…
As I sat reading my email and the news online this morning I had visions of reading the news not all that many years ago. Newsprint and ink stains...Reading the daily news was much more a hit or miss affair. What started this muse was reading Leon Hale's column from…
Status Report: The remodeling of our lone bathroom was finally completed yesterday after noon. We have spent the last day finding the little nicks and dings that will be driving the wife crazy as we learn to live with the new setup. The punch list isn't too long just yet…
I always know a remodeling project will take longer than anticipated when I am doing all of the work myself and without help. I did not expect to watch the projected timespan double on a professionally managed job. I sit here this Sunday morning with a crew still working in…
We slept in our own beds for the first time since Monday last night. The construction crew worked till almost 10pm making sure the most important part of the newly rebuilt bathroom was complete. Hopefully, today will put an end to the ongoing construction. I am ready to reclaim our…
The night was spent at the Best Western around the corner and in all probability tonight will be also. At home this morning to pick up a couple of things and before running off to work I thought I'd at least read my email. Hopefully, today will see enough progress…
We are starting an update of our bathroom today. I went in to this project with some misgivings. Today's start has not made these misgivings go away. Realize please, our house predates electricity and most probably indoor plumbing. So needless to say the house only has one bathroom. It was…
As a youngster growing up on the Gulf coast I naturally became a bit of a rockhound. Makes sense doesn't it? What with no natural rock formations being available within a hundred miles of where I lived. I think the rocks that first caught my eye, and are still my…
Leon Hale is a Houston institution. His column has been running in Houston Newspapers for as long as I've been around (or at least as long as I've been aware of being around). Today he broaches a subject near and dear to my heart...Texas summer heat. So the other afternoon…
You know as I was putting together my lunch to take into work today I was thinking just how oppressively hot it was outside yesterday afternoon. I remember marveling at one point because the temperature in Floyd, Va was only two degrees lower than the temperature in Houston, Tx. Then…
The sight that greets me in the morning as I leave for work... And the sight that greats me when I return... I must admit...I prefer the second shot to the first 'cause it means the work day is over. Truth be told, both shots were taken at the same…
As the sun sinks slowly behind the trees to the west the heat of the day begins to approach the lowly mid-eighties. Mid summer on the Texas Gulf Coast is always a charmer unless you live here, then it just becomes a dodge the mosquito chore of sweaty clothes and…
Who Are You? - New York Times I KNOW you. I know you well. It’s true I always have a little trouble with your name, but I do know your name. I just don’t know it at this moment..Have we met? I think we’ve met. But I can’t be sure.…
The bridge collapse in Minneapolis hadn't really impinged upon my conscious as I don't spend a lot of time on the TV. I have only seen passing references to the disaster on the net until this morning. I guess it was Eugene Robinson's column in the Washington Post; A Catastrophic…
The days number is 33...after today just two to go. This weekend brought the end of an era to our house. I finally broke down and bought our first replacement television with digital tuning. Had I known how clear of the air broadcasts could be with just a set of…
Warning: Bush Bashing Political Rant Follows The New York Times has a great question in the first paragraph of this editorial... FEMA Runs for Cover - New York Times How many times can the federal government let down the victims of the hurricanes that ravaged the Gulf Coast two years…
Well, I meandered thru my email, read the headlines and opinions of the paid opinion makers, and finished my morning muse cup of coffee. The news was full of the latest on Bush, the Congress, and Iraq...None of which I want to think about this morning. The weather has been…
7/7/07 - trip sevens Our neighbor is using this as an auspicious date for a wedding. I just think the groom was looking for an easy anniversary mnemonic. He sure wont have much excuse for forgetting it down the road 10 or 20 years. Anyway, wishing lots of good luck…
Charles Krauthammer has a long piece on the Immigration Bill and building fences. This whole fence argument comes with a timing that I find full of synchronicity. What with all of the air play Ronald Reagan's Berlin speech has gotten on the anniversary of the dismantling of the Berlin Wall.…
Ok, after a long hiatus on this site my liberal rantiness has returned. All it took was a return to the 1980's and the Republican definition of "Law and Order". I found this statement from Robert Novak intriguing. Just when it seemed George W. Bush's sinking prestige with his Republican…
Estate Tax Lunacy: "A decades-long campaign by right-wing activists (brilliantly documented by Yale professors Michael Graetz and Ian Shapiro in their book 'Death by a Thousand Cuts') has convinced many Americans that the estate tax poses a threat to countless hardworking families. That was always nonsense, and under the estate…
