Texas Is Open! -- May 9, 2020

To my astonishment and pleasant surprise, the city has re-opened Grapevine's "Central Park" -- Parr Park. Incredible. Miles of bike trails: cement and "off-road."

Something new appeared during the "shelter-in-place" order: a Parr Park rock path. It was truly incredible. If there were a hundred painted rocks, there were a thousand. Here is a sampling:

Okay, maybe not a thousand, but certainly a hundred.

It turns out that a dad took this on as a project to keep his children busy during the lock down. Sophia and I have our paints and our rocks; we just have not had the time to complete our own rocks. Stay tuned.

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The Amazon Page

I am completely blown away by Amazon -- how the company turned on a dime with what must have been an overwhelming demand in the early days of the "lock down" with the shortage of toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and disinfectants.

Literally overnight, Bezos et al had to re-think their same-day delivery promise to their Prime members.

The other day I ordered face masks in case Sophia and I needed them to get into a store (I have not yet worn a mask and have no plans to do so unless I have no choice; I won't go to Costco until they remove the "mask" requirement, for example). I was surprised how fast they got here -- look how Amazon mailed them -- "extremely urgent."

But the rocks I ordered for painting -- it's been a month and they still haven't shipped. LOL.

 I'm not complaining, and I bet very few Prime members are complaining.

This Will Keep The Riff-Raff Out -- Global Warming, North Dakota -- May 9, 2020

US Highway 2, road post #245, Leeds, ND -- just west of Devils Lake, about 120 miles west of Grand Forks, ND.

Today, May 9, 9:55 a.m. CT (photograph sent to me by a reader, thank you very, very much):

And apparently year-round:

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Word For The Day

This is not the first time this word has appeared as the "word of the day."

Schadenfreude.

The "old Michael Flynn defense."

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Completely Unexpected

Link here.

Texas Governor Calling Up The Reserves -- Saturday Morning, May 9, 2020

Gonna be a cold weekend, link here:

Hertz: bankruptcy? Link here. Google search certainly suggests it is likely.

Texas nurse: since Wuhan flu seems to be less "hard" on youngsters, the Texas governor has "called up" the reserves. This all came about when parents started looking for ways to get the kids out of the house and, well, one thing led to another, and then Texas being Texas suggested recruiting children to bolster the front-line responders. It's become somewhat of a sexist thing: most of the boys wanted to drive ambulances and fire trucks while the girls wanted to be nurses and hair stylists.

The state will mandate minimum height requirements taking a cue from theme park rides. Those driving firetrucks need to be able to reach the brake pedals, and those working in hospitals must be able to see over the side of a bed.