Another warm and gloomy Coffee Muses. A mourning dove has decided to join the morning chorus. The disc of the sun is sometimes visible, sometimes not, through the rising clouds that were once heavy fog. There's a blue jay announcing itself in my woods. A blue jay's call doesn't match…
Foggy morning Coffee Muses... It's loud out this morning. Birds are singing all over the place. And the fog seems to act as an amplifier. Somewhere, way off, I hear what sounds like a cuckoo...There's a slight breeze blowing cool, damp air out of the south, making it feel much…
Friday the thirteenth coffee muses... It's warm, humid, overcast again... Just about a perfect summer's morning except it's winter. As I sit here listening to the birds... and cows... and dogs... I can hear the sound of a train horn in the distance. All of those sounds can be heard…
It's already above 70 here on the back porch. The sky is crystal clear and the sun is warming. The prognosticators are talking about how we could break a record high for today and tomorrow. I sometimes wonder what it's like to actually have winter again like it was when…
The sky is mostly clear... At least for now. It's a bit cool too. Not so cool as to require more than shorts and a t-shirt while I wait for the sun to clear the horizon. I watched President Obama give his farewell address last night right after I saw…
This morning we are back in that gloomy weather groove to start the week. Though, I must admit, the mid 50's feel much more comfortable than the mid 20's of a day ago. Who am I kidding, it feels better than the 40 degrees it was at sundown last evening.…
Frosty cold this morning. Two nights in a row the temperature has fallen into the mid-twenties. The temperature on the other porch is still 29 degrees. It's a funny thing though, the thermometer on the post to my left is already reading 40 degrees. Microclimates... aren't they fun? It's what…
It's so cold this morning it froze the internet. You have no idea what it's like to have a couple of grandkids who are used to on demand television sitting around with no internet connection... No Netflix... No Hulu... No PBS Kids. And, since we replaced the living room television,…
Another overcast day to start the new year. It's so quiet today that traffic sounds from far away are prominent. Even the birds are subdued. Well they were, right up until I wrote about it. The prognosticators are calling for a high today of about 66. Then the temperature will…
High clouds, hazy sun, light breeze, cool temperature, a motorcycles roar breaks the morning quiet. Slowly the sound of the many birds comes back only to be broken by the air horn of the passing train. Steel wheels on steel rails make a subtle roar in counterpoint to the rubber…
There's a fine line the winter temperature must walk for this porch to be comfortable with the sun shining brightly. Today's temperature is flirting with the upper limits of that line. The temperature on the other side of the house is just now moving into the sixties, but here on…
So far, 2017 has started off warm and humid. That's about to change tomorrow. It's windy this morning and I'm seeing, and hearing, more of the winter birds around the area you see in the photo. Today will also be the last full day of a full house. My wife…
Warning Political Rant Follows Is it the weather or the political outlook that has me so down in the dumps on this New Year's morning? As we begin this the question isn't will DJT be bad for my country... It's how bad will he be. When Obama took office, Republicans…
It's still out here this morning. And the low 50's on the thermometer feels nice. As 2016 comes to an end I find myself wondering how much more craziness this old world can dish out at us... I suppose we will find out soon enough. Everyone keep your fingers crossed.…
The property behind mine lays along Mustang Bayou. With all of the rain we have had this summer, the grass had grown quite tall. This week my neighbor spent a day on his big green machine mowing the right of way visible from the back porch. Now, once again, the…
On another overcast morning, breezes blowing cool, I should be moving, but after the heat of last week I can't make myself give up on the pleasure of my morning coffee muse here on the back porch. Cup number two is down to dregs. Excuse me while I get a…
https://youtu.be/wOxW5YWqqdU The pitter patter of raindrops hitting the roof. Rumbles of distant thunder rolling across the land. If the Weather Underground is to be believed... This is what my week will look like. My backyard is in need of a cutting but my Deere is in need of having the…
Short lived rain, even shorter rumblings of thunder, flashes of sunshine in between... None of it stops the songs of the birds.
Saturday morning coffee... it's still dripping in the machine. The grandkids have been up and Sherry is already fussing with Abbie. We slept in and I already hear the work crew bumping around. Messing around with this little tablet I've been using has been an experience. I knew when I…
It's Sunday morning and we are sitting here with the back door wide open. Listening to a light rain fall outside as the cool outside air filters in. It feels more like spring than the middle of winter. The low last night must not have fallen below 60°. The last half of…
Sometimes it seems like summer will never end here along the Texas coast. Yesterday afternoon the temperature was pushing 97° according to the weather station on the mantle. I checked with the WunderGround and the heat index was almost at 110°. For the last few weeks I have been spending the early…
Lila Kerr was drawing her own blood and handing it over to a room full of health directors in Yatzaputzan, a village in the Ecuadorian Andes, as they prepared to test out a portable centrifuge created by a team of Rice University undergraduates. The anticipation was high as they pushed…
The Yard The rains last week had me cruising around on Monday for most of the day. I was flying formation with squadrons of dragonflies as I made my rounds on the Deere...The summer numbers are here at last. There must have been a couple of thousand of the flying…
Thunderstorms and Heat The week started off with thunderstorms rolling through the area...Lights were blinking, internet connectivity was problematic at best but we kept on keeping on. Wednesday's storms missed us and by Thursday we were into the "Heat" part of the week. What I mean by heat is that…
General Muse Over the past week it has seemed as if I am neglecting the daily muse here at Coffee Muses...What with experimenting with WordPress 3.0 on a couple of test blogs (and posting about what I discover at Gary-Boyd.com). I have been trying to repost three years of photos…
I don't know about you, but I have a few. Some of them I share with my wife. The problem we always have had was trying to comfortably share the laptop screen with each other for the length of the show. And while, I have always know I could use…
For over 35 years one of the defining events of each year was the opening of the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. During much of that time, OTC was the largest tradeshow we did each year. Pre-production would begin toward the end of each year as initial contacts with clients…
For most of the past decade I had picked today as my last day of employment with Freeman. Earth Day 2010...The fortieth anniversary of the defining idea of my generation and 38 years into a career at a single company. Today would have been the day I was able to…
Many years ago (way back in the decadent '80's) as I began to move into middle management I discovered Tom Peter's In Search Of Excellence. I took the book to heart. I strove to make my clients experience as Excellent, with a capitol E, as I could. I think we…
For some reason this year my wife has spring break off. It makes no sense, she could never get spring break off when we, you know, actually had kids off on spring break. But this year she has spring break off. Guess what? Grandson #2 is all ours each and…
