Unscheduled day off

Rain, thunder and lightning continued in bands through the night. Around 4:30am I was awakened by the loudest thunder I've ever heard around here - everything vibrated. The kids slept peacefully through it. It's been a while since I've gone through such a loud storm.

We set out for our morning routine just to find that school was closed. I drove to the office with the kids and my office building was also closed - 12ft of water in the basement. From the driveway you could see the "pool" down the delivery ramp.

I'll be surprised if they can actually clean up today and have the building ready for the workday tomorrow. I'm sure plumbing, electricity, elevators all will need to be cleaned out and inspected...what a mess!

It was treat to spend the morning with the kids just playing around in a museum.

Thunderstorm

The kids and I got a big soaking today. The rain started in the end of the afternoon just in time for school pick-up and rush hour. We waited inside pretty much until the school closed, the rain and wind didn't let up so we ran for it. Running or not we got to the car pretty wet. The kids were laughing away!

The drive home on the freeway was not that fun though. Traffic was moving at an awkward 40mph with very poor visibility.

We are still under severe thunderstorm , flash flood and tornado warnings.

A snake in my path

I was hoping snakes brought good luck. Yesterday as I was starting my run I hopped over one. It was camouflaged in the grass and I saw it as I went over it and it raised up and opened it's mouth wide warning me I was in its territory. Luckily, I was moving faster than it was.

This morning though luck didn't materialize. I got a ticket on the freeway in a under posted zone...I'll blame it on bad luck from the snake yesterday. I'm quite annoyed at having to spend 6 hours of my life now in defensive driving school in addition to paying $100+ in court fees. @$#$%@#$%@$%.

Just found it on the web http://www.houstonherp.com/BlotchedWS.html

The one I encountered though was about half this size.

Please color my star

Out of the blue today... no where near the star (see pic June 21).

Mommy, the guy didn't paint the star very well.

Why do you say that, K?

It's just brown.

What color is a star supposed to be?

Oh, just all colors. Colors!

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Photo art projects

Photography art projects... to be started, one day ...

= I-10 road cargo. There are very interesting and artistic loads out there.

= Road construction crews at work. The faces, raw materials and machines behind the scene.

= The fauna, flora and people of Brazos Bend State Park

The joys of commuting

Commuting to work has gained a new dimension since I switched jobs a couple of years ago. From a 1-person, 5-minute ride to a 3-person 30-minute ride across town. Daily entertainement include music, taking pictures of fellow comutters and their cars, trucks, school buses and city buses, spotting flags, watching highway construction and sometimes observing artists at work!

A few weeks back we spotted a guy painting a "Texas Star" on the newly constructed overpass. He was probably 3/4 of the way done. The following day he didn't show up to finish the job, the next day either, then we went out on vacation. Upon our return a couple of week later, K screams from the back seat ... he finished it, he finished it! I look left to find a complete star brightening up the scene. He finished it indeed!

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