Power demand in Texas hit a record high on Monday as consumers turned up their air conditioners to escape a heatwave that is boiling much of the southern Plains over the next 7-10 days.
"A large ridge of high pressure has anchored itself across the southern Plains over the last 7-10 days, promoting significant heat across Texas. As of Tuesday morning, Dallas has reached 100°F each of the last 4 days, while Houston's Intercontinental Airport has hit 101°F each of the past 5 days."
ERCOT Houston MW-hour jumped from $25 to $603 on August 12, a +2,237% move in 1,440 minutes.But at least no brownouts or blackouts. Business as usual.
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Soccer
Sophia has her first outdoor soccer practice tonight at 6:00 p.m. It should be cooler by then; maybe 97 degrees.
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The Music Page
The Music Page
Here, Hold My Beer
Over at "YouTube Fugue," I have a page devoted to 1969:
There was an 18-month-period, from late 1968 through mid-1970 that clearly had some of the best music ever. This was the year of Woodstock. The Beatles were still going strong, but touring less, and would soon stop completely. Led Zeppelin's first two albums, Zeppelin I and Zeppelin II, were released in 1969. The era of "free love" and the uncertainties of the Vietnam War probably contributed to some of this really incredible music. Speaking of the Vietnam war, I turned 18 in 1969. My lottery draft was July 1, 1970; my lottery number was 103. The highest lottery number called for this group was 125; all men assigned that lottery number or any lower number, and who were classified as available for military service, were called to report for possible induction. I would have been deferred by virtue of being enrolled in college. I was worried that I would be called up before I graduated from college. I was convinced, but wrong, that the war would still be going on when I graduated from college.For some reason, my "go-to" radio station in the DFW area has Norman Greenbaum/"Spirit In The Sky" (1969) in rotation. It's getting a lot of airtime recently. I don't why.
From wiki:
"Spirit in the Sky" makes several religious references to Jesus, although Greenbaum is Jewish. In a 2006 interview with the New York Times, Greenbaum told a reporter he was inspired to write the song after watching Porter Wagoner singing a gospel song on TV. Greenbaum said: "I thought, 'Yeah, I could do that,' [ "here, hold my beer"] knowing nothing about gospel music, so I sat down and wrote my own gospel song. It came easy. I wrote the words in 15 minutes."Best line: "A psychedelic Christian song, written and performed by an Orthodox Jew. Only in America, only in 1969." [Only in 1969; best year ever for music.]
Which leads me to ...
And I do believe that Porter Wagoner, the singer, was re-incarnated at Brad Keselowski the NASCAR race driver.
