September 9, 2025 – Teal hunting season kicks off September 20 and for the first time in nearly 20 years, Texas waterfowl hunters face a shortened early season.

The Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service  (USFWS) and Canadian Wildlife Service in May of 2024 estimated the blue-winged teal breeding population at 4.55 million birds, a 15 percent decline and the lowest estimate in two decades. USFWS requires a minimum population of 4.7 million birds to authorize a full 16-day season.

September 9, 2025 - Good Morning! It’s Tuesday, September 9.

I love spirituals. I love the simplicity, the honesty of these old songs, created by the Black church before the Civil War. Songs of courage and inspiration. Songs of faith, like “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “Deep River,” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.” They often contain a touch of melancholy, but also a sense of hope. They are, in every sense, songs of the heart.

September 8, 2025 - Both my parents and paternal grandparents were avid 42 players, and I was introduced to this domino game at an early age. I began my 42 career around age eight or nine - they waited until I learned to count and cipher.

My grandmother, Mary Murphy, was a very serious player, you know the type who hates to lose, counts all the dominoes, and will know who has what domino in their hand. I never advanced to her level of proficiency.

September 8, 2025 - In the United States, Patriot Day occurs on September 11 of each year in memory of those killed that day in 2001.

US Flags and other flags flying with it should be lowered to half-staff at Sunup on Thursday, September 11, 2025, and raised at sundown the same day. It is permissible to lower them the evening before on September 10.

If you have outdoor flags that cannot be lowered, respect for the day can be shown by tying a black cord or ribbon to the top of the mast.

September 5, 2025 - Good Morning! It’s Friday, September 5.

The term “genius” is thrown around a lot these days. A famous football coach, a director of hit movies, a mega pop star - geniuses! After a while the word starts to lose its weight, its impact. But, back in the day, there was only one . . . Albert Einstein. In 1922, he was 42 years old, and generally considered the greatest mind on earth. That year he would receive the Nobel Prize in physics for his Theory of Relativity. But todays’s devotion is about another of Einstein’s theories - the theory of happiness.