It always intrigues me when the weather goes topsy turvy. This morning when I arrived at the coffee pot the weather station on the shelf said the outside temperature was holding at 50°. The humidity reads 75%. Both readings are at least 20 points below what they were at the…
This week's challenge: 'The City'. Houston on a beautiful winter day in February of this year. Taken while attending a National Geographic Photography Session at the U of H Downtown Campus. This week's challenge: 'The City'. Please read our Participant Guide before deciding to submit a link. Your link must…
From my drive on Monday... I went looking for this shot as there is no way you can call this windmill "on the way home"...Though I drive by it often enough. Of all the windmills I am acquainted with I like the looks of this one the best... ++++++++++ It…
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…
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…
It has been hot and humid here in southeast Texas this weekend. Both the temperature and the humidity have been in the upper half of the 80's (measured under an acre of shade here at my house...which tends to be a bit lower than the official temperature). So outside, misery…
The Labor Day weekend played out long as usual. The bar-b-que was well received by one and all. I think we ended up with a bakers dozen here at one point or another during the afternoon. We pigged out, literally...Ribs and sausage (though there was some fresh chicken sausage on…
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…
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…
The predawn hours have been accompanied with the distant rumble of nature's own percussion section. Tropical storm Erin moved ashore just northeast of Corpus Christie this morning and the outlying rain bands began to come ashore here yesterday morning. So far we have managed to dodge the heavier bands of…
The whole time I was doing the seven weeks of radiation the technicians and the nurses warned me that the two to three weeks after the treatment ended would be bad to worse...They spoke truth. The burns on my neck didn't begin to manifest until after the last treatment was…
"The days still come in order. Gray light collects in the bedroom long before dawn. Then comes a bleached noon and nearly always the threat of a late-afternoon thunderstorm. The darkness is notated by fireflies, who have been unusually numerous — or is it unusually bright? — this year. The…
Todays number is 32...The effects of swallowing the sun are beginning to manifest themselves. The gravel in my voice has become a whisper this week (along with the voice itself), and my energy level has fallen to a new low. Almost done... I was running through my Reader today and…
Todays number is 31...Look Ma, no voice...He said with a raspy whisper. If this doesn't look like the eye of an angry God, I'll eat my fire and brimstone upbringing. I have visions of a bird of prey here... The Helix Nebula Dust makes this cosmic eye look red.…
Technically, it's the last day of week six since the 4th fell in there and these treatments run their course in 35 days and not 7 weeks. But, since we started on a Wednesday, and we'll end on a Wednesday, this Wednesday will be the start of the week for…
This week's challenge: 'Barren' Taken in January 2005 on my last trip to Vegas... PHOTO FRIDAY 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…
Warning...Political Rant Coming Ok, if this trend continues, we are going to have to suspect divine intervention in the AG firings. How else can we explain the "fact" that no one had any input on which AGs were fired? Seems from all of the testimony so far that no one…
Can you imagine what must have been going on behind the scenes on this day all those years ago in Philadelphia? The discussions, the arguments, the compromises all to commit...treason. Each and every signer of the Declaration of Independence was putting his head in a noose for what he believed…
This mornings Washington Post has some interesting reading. Even David Broder is on Chaney's case this morning. If you haven't checked out the Post's series on the essential Dick Chaney you really should...Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency. But then we get to George Will. I am beginning to think the…
Colin Fletcher (photograph, John Sexton/Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association) For most of us who care about ecology and the environment, there was some personal experience that brought us there. For me, it was wilderness hiking, beginning 30-plus years ago in the Grand Canyon and continuing across the American West. Two…
Verlyn Klinkenborg has a new piece out. His observations on humanity and our relationship to the natural world do not put humanity in the best of lights...Rightfully so in my humble opinion. Millions of Missing Birds, Vanishing in Plain Sight - New York Times Last week, the Audubon Society released…
The reason Bush and buddies are so clueless is that they are eaten up with corporate arrogance and avarice. They possess a stunning sense of entitlement, leading them to treat our government as their private plaything. What they need is to have a good kindergarten teacher assigned to refresh each…
There is a firestorm brewing in Washington DC. It is a storm fueled by scandal...Scandals based on the perception of dishonesty. At this moment, it is only the perception of dishonesty that is fueling this firestorm of scandals. But each days news cycle brings more reports of lost documents, lost…
"Journalists by nature shy from pinning the "liar" label on any political leader, but President Bush's acknowledgments that he had not been forthcoming about his plans to dump Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld have kicked up a fuss at the White House and sparked a debate about the limits of…
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…
The Houston Chronicle is reporting that Colin Powell is not backing down from his stand on the issue of American Principles...Nor the decision to invade Iraq.American principles are vital to terror fight, Powell says: "Former Secretary of State Colin Powell defended Wednesday the decision to invade Iraq and topple leader…
