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…

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)…

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….

…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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

I took a day off from work today…It seemed like a good investment in mental health. My wife had already scheduled the day off planning for the scheduled arrival of our latest grandson. In case…

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…

Texas’ overall uninsured rate of 25.2 percent, and its 20.2 uninsured rate for children, continued to be the highest in the country. Nationally, the number of people without health insurance last year declined from 47…

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…

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…

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…

This one’s for you… While reporters at The Post and The New York Times have been vetting McCain, many others give him a free pass. Their default cliché is to present him as the Old…

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…

This has to be one of the strangest things about Texas Republicans… When health care in Texas makes headlines, the issues raised by administrators and physicians are hardly rosy. They include overcrowded emergency rooms, mounting…

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.”…

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 —…

In order for the American dream to work, everyone must do their part. As you can see from this report, the majority of the corporations doing business here don’t. WASHINGTON — Two-thirds of U.S. corporations…

What do you call a Republican who is happy to lie directly to people’s faces? John W. McCain. The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan.

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….

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

…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 –…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Image by Getty Images via Daylife Yesterday there was an op-ed in the Times that said a lot of what I have been feeling here lately…and said it well…Go read the whole thing… Thomas L….

The Rural Life – Editorial – Summer’s Night – Editorial – NYTimes.com The last couple of nights I’ve stood at the edge of the pasture watching the fireflies. They rise from the grass, flickering higher…

Looking out the french doors in the kitchen this morning as I read my email and check the news I am amazed at the difference a couple of weeks of hit and miss rain can…