It's Official

 Over 1,000,000 Covid deaths in the USA is the "official" tally but the actual number is probably higher, with over 80,000,000 known infections-- so far. Grim news. And a lot of those deaths were certainly preventable. Hot here. Record highs. Deep drought. Humanity shits in its own nest and pays the price. Increase and multiply? That's a prescription for species suicide. 

Nice to see that Madison "Mad Dog" Cawthorn lost his primary. Good riddance to right-wing trash. He'll probably get a job spewing white-supremacist and Russian propaganda filth on FOX.  FOX: where the mentally and morally deficient find the "news" that pleases them. Of course, if they don't get enough there, they can always get their fix in the churches they attend.

It Actually Rained Again

 It was very humid yesterday and after sunset it got very cloudy and dark and eventually I heard thunder and then there was thunder and flashes of lightening. Wow. And it rained. A little. Not a lot where I am but maybe, I hope, other areas got more. And now it is back to extreme heat. Maybe by Saturday it will cool down a lot. It might actually be a nice weekend!

In the picture above, see the result of a heavy rain YEARS ago. Eight or nine YEARS ago, there was significant rainfall. Nothing like that since then. Welcome to the desert, or what WILL be a desert.

Everything's ephemeral. Remember that. 

Cool, Cloudy, And Windy

 Humid as well! Feels great but it's only for one day and rain chances are minute. But at least it's a break in the hot and dry cycle. It won't last long. Watched the lunar eclipse with powerful binoculars and did some other star-gazing as well. Lubbock has severe light pollution, unfortunately. I felt sorry for all the numbskulls, like the flat-earthers. There are so many different varieties of numbskulls running around it's hard to keep track! 

At the moment, I enjoy cool breezes. 

Hot And Dry!

 Very hot and very dry but maybe a break in the heat late in the week. And some slight rain chances. It cools off nicely at night, though, with morning lows near sixty. It's a true desert climate. In another generation I expect to see this part of Texas covered in drifting sand and dead for all practical purposes. I'm inclined to say "good riddance" but in any case I won't be here and it won't be my problem. 

It looks like we are back to sunflowers and finches. These pics are all mixed up. 

The Texas Power Grid-- Still Unreliable?

 Record heat in Texas and already warnings of blackouts and brownouts. Our shit-for-brains governor throws money at CRAP, pandering to the racist half-wits who vote for him, and the important stuff is low priority in his looney toon world. He's already driven up prices on a lot of food items, pandering to his idiot base, and the power grid seems to be as shaky as ever. Paxton, Abbot, and that other idiot whose name I can never recall-- an ungodly trinity of terminal numbskulls if there ever was one. But an awful lot of Texans like to eat the shit they dish out. If Texans were smart, they wouldn't really be Texans anymore, would they?

In our area, something like 75% of our energy is generated by huge wind farms, so we might be in better shape than the rest of the state. Rick (dickhead) Perry wanted to kill wind power. Let's not forget that.