Yesterday morning at this time the temperature outside my door was 36°...Today it's 61. When the sun rose yesterday the ground was white with the second frost of the year. I'll be surprised if we see the sun this morning. I see this toasty weather outside my door isn't being…
We seem to be having another of those foggy fall mornings...The temperature is predicted to be rising through the weekend. I have even heard predictions of 70's this weekend. So it looks like fall has teased us again. Just another example of the many changes life puts us through. Life…
Thanksgiving Day was the last decent weather day we had through the long holiday weekend. Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all wet, windy and cold. Most decidedly cold for the wife. Forty degree weather in this neck of the woods qualifies as winter, not fall, so throw in the rain…
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We wandered over to my mother's house about noon on Thursday carrying our contribution to the feast. Both of my brothers were already there. Of my sisters one had arrived and one was running late...So far everything was normal for the day.…
Two Pigs - Verlyn Klinkenborg - York Times Over the course of just a few generations (in my case just two) we have gone from a world where everyone knew where their food came from to a world where you really don't even know which continent supplied the ingredients in…
From my drive home yesterday. The weather was threatening to follow me home...but it didn't. The clouds were amazing. And a little post processing in Photomatix Pro never hurts to bring them out in HDR. I drive by this location regularly since I first discovered it last fall. For a…
Blog Action Day On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind. In 2007 the issue is the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get…
The morning reading of the thermometer shows that our last few days of precursor fall weather were just a tease as usual. The morning's low is in the mid seventies again and the afternoon highs haven't been pleasant even when the lows were ten degrees less...I guess my best shot…
We are having another of those needed fall mornings here. The temperature as I made the trek to the road with the contribution to the garbage gods this morning was almost pleasant. Sadly, the prognosticators are calling for 90° by the afternoon. But any morning that starts out in the…
From Coffee Muses Babe in his mother's arms...That's comfort. This week's challenge: 'Comfort'. 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 your website's main page. Read this for more info.…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
Thanks to Rebecca Blood for the link... I agree with her assessment. It is great advice on living well. Reflections On Italy TODAY WHILE TROLLING the hard drive on my Macbook Pro I came across a .txt file titled "Reflections on Italy." Link: Seat 1A: Reflections On Italy ++++++++++ Walking…
While most of the country encounters a Christmas Snow with a fair amount of regularity, this is the only known Christmas Day Snow in Brazoria County, Texas. I would think that would rate it as an "oddity". On Christmas Eve 2004 the snow began to fall at about 10pm. It…
This morning Garrison informs us of a birthday... It's the birthday of Wendell Berry born in Port Royal, Kentucky (1934). He grew up on farmland that had belonged to his family since 1803. He went on to college and to graduate school. He lived in California and Italy and New…
After this afternoons session, my sacrifices on the alter of the atomic spheres comes to an end...The number for the day is 35...of 35. An ending and a beginning, even though I am yet to be thru this journey I am embarked upon. In the news today on the weather…
We carry with us these footprints of vanished places: apartments we moved out of years ago, dry cleaners that went out of business, restaurants that stopped serving, neighborhoods where only the street names remain the same. Verlyn Klinkenborg - Remembered Spaces - New York Times Today's number is 24...One of…
Today is the end of my fourth week of radiation treatment. After today I will have three more weeks to go. The treatments have become a daily routine...The people at the treatment center are really nice and always courteous. The patients I see each day are all friendly. I have…
Garrison tells us that... Tonight is Midsummer Night's Eve, also called St. John's Eve. St. John is the patron saint of beekeepers. It's a time when the hives are full of honey. The full moon that occurs this month was called the Mead Moon, because honey was fermented to make…
I was sitting here checking out some WP plugins when I noticed the time. Poured my first cup of the morning muse and turned on "Sunday Morning". I was late for the preamble but caught most of the first story. Even Sunday Morning is on the sugar story and what…
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.…
Currently: 73° Dewpoint: 72° Wind: Calm Humidity: 97% Pressure: 29.87 in Hg Average: High 91° Low 72° Record: High 102° (1998) Low 62° (1995) Today's Sunrise: 6:20AM Today's Sunset: 8:23PM (14:03 hours of sunlight) I am still working on a repeatable format for this blog, so bear with me. If…
After listening to some of the hearing on the radio, I am forced to agree with the Post. What does it say about America, that the ruling party for the last decade have placed the biggest obstructionists in positions of power and then blamed the opposition for being obstructionists. THE LAST hearing…
I found the following paragraphs most telling. In an article in the latest issue of the conservative Weekly Standard, Yuval Levin, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, explains the tension between the market and the family as clearly as anyone has: "The market values risk-taking and creative…
Jim Hightower is one of the few Texas Progressive Politicians my generation has seen. He has a real talent for cutting through the BS that most politicians sling...Hey, how about indulging yourself with a hot new Maserati? Yeah, it's got a sticker price that'll make you go blind – but,…
This morning's OP-ED from David Broder makes some interesting points. He has divided the Bush Presidency into four phases. I think he should have added a fifth. In trying to gauge where things stand in our government after the political upheaval that has taken place, it helps to think back through the…
If there is any question about what happened yeaterday, think about this...Half full: Perceptions of the economy, like its rewards, vary wildly and help to explain the election results. | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: "Houston is an informative example. In a city that is home to some of the world's…
Eugene Robinson makes a good point today.'Values' Choice for The GOP - washingtonpost.com: "The culture war is supposed to be about morality, but really it's a crusade to compel Americans to follow certain norms of private behavior that some social and religious conservatives believe are mandated by sociology, nature or…
Former Texas Governor, Activist Ann Richards, 73 - washingtonpost.com: "Former Texas governor Ann Richards, the witty and flamboyant Democrat who went from homemaker to national political celebrity, died Sept. 13 after cancer was diagnosed this year, a family spokeswoman said. She was 73."She was a breath of fresh air in…
As a followup to the previous post and a commentary on the many conservative pundants who don't understand the sour attitude of the American Public on the state of the economy I would like to point to this Washington Post Editorial:Mr. Bush and Labor DayWorkers aren't benefiting from growth.Monday, September…
You know, Tom Delay had been my Congressman for most of my adult life. I have been voting against him for that entire length of time. Today I am happy to say “don’t let the door hit you, Tom.” I look forward to enjoying your retirement from politics. The Washinton…
I continue to hear and read stories about how the business analysts cannot explain the general feeling of unease that the public keeps feeling over the “Robust American Economy”. The keep quoting all of the indicators that they say should make us feel great about where the economy is going,…
Daily Kos: Science Friday: Tis The Season: "Science Friday: Tis The Season by DarkSyde Fri Jun 02, 2006 at 03:41:48 AM PDT In the aftermath of the devastating 2005 hurricane season, the following soundbite was repeated incessantly, packaged in various ways, on every network news station by head meteorologists with…
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…
You know as a resident of the Texas Gulf Coast, living less than 5o miles from the Gulf of Mexico I read articles like this and I am worried, very worried... Is U.S. Ready for Hurricane Season?: "'Last year we didn't have a clue,' said the acting FEMA director, R.…
