environmental news

Green energy saves the day?

Well, I’ll be swathed in sunshine and whipped by the wind! Reports now indicate that green energy sources have kept Texans’ electricity running during the recent heat wave that blanketed the state.

According to ABCNews.com: The perfect meteorological conditions have allowed renewable energy generated by wind turbines and solar panels to supply the grids with enough power to meet demand, experts told ABC News.

This is heartening news to this armchair environmentalist.

ABC News reports: While natural gas is still the primary power source for the state’s grid, wind and solar energy are heavily contributing to the supply, data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas shows. On Thursday afternoon, solar produced 10,757 megawatts, while wind produced 7,433 megawatts, representing about 26% of the grid’s power.

At the same time, natural gas produced 33,514 megawatts – nearly 50% of the grid’s power – while coal and lignite produced 11,357 megawatts – about 17% – the ERCOT data showed.

I get that fossil fuels still provide most of the energy to run our power plants, but it does make me smile to learn that environmentally friendly sources are taking a larger bite out of the demand for electricity.

I just returned from a two-day jaunt to the Texas Panhandle, where I drove through many miles of wind farms. I watched the turbines turning furiously as the wind ripped across the Caprock. I always think consciously of the power being generated by those turbines and long for the day when we can wean ourselves of the finite fossil fuel sources that eventually — albeit over a lengthy period of time — will run out.

Check out ABC News’s story here:

Solar, wind energy keeping Texas power grids running amid weekslong heat wave – ABC News (ampproject.org)

Another item from ABC News: Wind and solar are also the fastest-growing electricity sources in the country, with solar power accounting for 43% of the capacity added in 2020 and wind power amounting to 38%, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

I get that the sun will expire in — what? — in a million or two million years from now. Who knows what’ll happen to the wind source when the sun burns itself out?

For those who are worried about the here and now, the news about sun and wind playing increasing role in keeping the lights and conditioners running is good news, indeed.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 103: I’m his BFF!

Toby the Puppy this afternoon demonstrated his role as the top BFF in my new world.

I had been away for a couple of days, driving to the Texas Panhandle to see a few friends and to, well, just get out of the house. I was on my own — as in completely alone — for the first time in as long as I can remember.

I walked into the door of my home in Princeton and there he was … doing something quite rare in greeting me. He was making sounds — as in little yips of joy! He doesn’t usually make those noises.

The last time I heard him do it was when my bride and I returned home from a two-week trip to Germany and The Netherlands in 2016. We had placed Toby the Puppy in a doggie spa/veterinary clinic. We walked into the office to pick him up; the vet tech fetched him; Toby then glanced at us and leaped from the tech’s arms into his Mommy’s arms … yipping joyfully the whole time.

I got the same treatment, more or less, from him today.

He welcomed me home with plenty of licks and a whole lot of love and attention.

Ahh, yes, it is so good to be home.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, Sports news

It’s gone … finally!

AMARILLO, Texas — What you see here is a pile of rubble that was too long in the making, but which — I hope — will be gone in short order.

It is what is left of what they used to call Potter County Memorial Stadium, aka the Dilla Villa.

It sat on the corner of the Tri-State Fairgrounds in Amarillo. It has been knocked down and will be cleared away soon (I will presume) to make room for more functional uses on the property owned by Potter County.

The former Dilla Villa was a rathole. A dump. An eyesore.

The Dillas once were an independent baseball team that played ball in Amarillo. They were among a lengthy string of teams that once called this place a “home field.” The Dillas eventually gave way to another organization, but the management couldn’t even play all their home games in this dump. It was that unsuitable. They split their “home games” with a stadium in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

It was a sad turn of events.

Now, to be clear, you may spare me the crocodile tears about the stadium being the source of so many memories, going back deeply into the 20th century. The county simply didn’t perform upkeep on the place to keep it suitable for athletic events.

Instead, this one-time sports venue gave way to the modern park that emerged in downtown Amarillo, where the Sod Poodles play AA minor league baseball under the guidance of the National League’s Arizona Diamondbacks baseball franchise.

They recently set a home-field attendance record at Hodgetown. Fans are flocking to the still-shiny ballpark. The Soddies, moreover, are playing some good hardball downtown.

So, is the demise of the Potter County ballpark a reason for tears? Hardly. To this former Amarillo resident’s eyes, it’s reason for cheering.

Thanks for the memories, Dilla Villa, but your time has been up for a long while.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

No redeeming quality

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AMARILLO, Texas — I ran into a longtime friend this morning at a local coffee shop.

He and I exchanged greetings. He asked, “What brings you back?” I said I wanted to get away for a couple of days. I asked, “You didn’t hear about my wife?” He said no.

I told him Kathy Anne passed away in February as the result of brain cancer. I told him we got the diagnosis the day after Christmas and she was gone … just like that.

“Well,” he said, “I guess there’s something to be said for going quickly.” I stopped him. “No. There is nothing redeeming about this,” I said. “I cannot find anything about the swiftness of this disease that gives me any comfort.”

He nodded. My friend knew of what I was speaking.

I mean not a shred of disrespect for my friend. I merely want him to know that I remain “shattered” from this loss and try as I might, I cannot find anything yet that relieves me of the pain of losing my bride so damn quickly.

As I have noted already on this blog, the reassembling of my life remains a work in progress. It’s coming along, but it will take a while. My friend understands.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Traveling alone, as in … alone!

AMARILLO, Texas — It took me a few hours today to realize what was different about this brief excursion from my North Texas home to points northwest on the Texas Caprock.

I was alone in the pickup. By that I mean I was totally alone.

Now, you know that my dear bride, Kathy Anne, is gone. It’s obvious to you that she is unable to accompany me alongside in her customary place in the vehicle we own.

What isn’t obvious is that Toby the Puppy didn’t make this trip. He stayed home to keep my son and his two kitties, Macy and Marlowe, company.

I ventured back to the High Plains to see a few friends. Not many of them, mind you, because I’m here only for a couple of days before I head back to the house in Princeton.

But damn! Not having my puppy with me is seriously strange, man. I talk to him while we motor along the highway. He doesn’t talk back, obviously. He does respond with a tail wag and a lick. He will let me know if he has to relieve himself along the way; he gives me the doe-eyed stare and he might start to paw my arm, as if to say, “Dad, uhhh, it’s time to pull over.”

But for the first time in, oh, a very long time I have no traveling companion to share a laugh or to say, “I love you.” Yes, I tell Toby the Puppy that I love him all the time, just as I told Kathy Anne that very truth for more than 50 years.

She would say she loved me, too. Toby the Puppy? He expresses his love differently, but I know it when he tells me.

I’m glad I’ll be away only for two nights. Then I head home. The next sojourn commences in a couple of weeks; it will take me east to North Carolina and Virginia and points between here and there.

Toby the Puppy will be with me for every mile of that trek.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

How about some A/C relief for convicts?

Allow me to stipulate that I am acutely aware that convicted felons serving time in Texas’s vast prison system aren’t exactly a crop of model citizens.

Still, do they deserve to die in prison from heat-related causes? No!

What’s more, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice appears stubbornly to refuse to acknowledge the deaths of inmates — when they involve the oppressive heat — are in fact the result of what we all are feeling at this moment.

Summer in Texas always produces this kind of reporting. The Texas Tribune reports that at least nine TDJ inmates have succumbed from the current heat wave, but that the agency is reluctant to identify heat as the cause of death.

What the hell?

Most of the TDC units have no internal air conditioning. TDCJ officials rely on nature’s remedy to give inmates some relief. The Legislature, which is battling over property tax reform, seems to treat the health of the state’s inmate population as, well … no big deal.

Yeah, it’s a huge deal, man.

Legislators entered this year’s session with a budget surplus of more than $32 billion. Did they peel off some of that money to equip or prison system with A/C units? Hah! Hardly!

This isn’t a matter of “getting tough on crime and those who commit them.” It’s a matter of human decency.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news

It’s still the economy, stupid

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James Carville, the political guru who burst into notoriety while helping steer Bill Clinton to the presidency in 1992, once famously declared, “It’s the economy, stupid” as he led Clinton to victory over President George H.W. Bush.

I believe President Biden would do well to resurrect a portion of Carville’s winning mantra.

It’s still “the economy, stupid” as Joe Biden campaigns for re-election in 2024.

The numbers hold up well under careful examination.

Joblessness is near historic lows; we are creating more jobs each month than any time in our history; inflation is receding; our national budget deficit has been slashed.

Mr. President, you are entitled to gloat just a bit, reminding us that “Bidenomics is working!”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Birthday parties: a serious blast

I love birthday parties. They commemorate another year around the sun for those of us able to enjoy the ride.

Moreover, I also enjoy national parties, such as the one the USA is celebrating today as it turns 247 years young. Yes, we’re still a young nation, given the comparative ages of many nations with which we share this good planet Earth. I have had the pleasure of visiting countries in Asia and Europe, where they count their ages in millennia, not mere years.

This Fourth of July will be a quiet one for my family and me. We are still mending our shattered hearts. My wife left us in February after a brief, but ferocious, fight with cancer. My sons are hurting, as is my daughter-in-law and granddaughter.

I will return eventually to celebrating our national birthday. Just not this year.

The Fourth of July is intended to celebrate a great nation. It has always been great, even with its occasional dents and dings and, yes some hideous policies that have been sent to the crapper.

I look forward to enjoying the birthday party once again.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

‘Fourth’ was prelim to great main event

Americans today are marking the 247th birthday of this nation’s Declaration of Independence from Great Britain.

Yes, it is a date worth commemorating, worth celebrating and worth honoring. The reality, though, is that this day was a preliminary event to the real thing, which occurred after the American Revolution ended in 1781.

Our Declaration of Independence launched a war that took thousands of American lives. It is a masterful document penned by a man who would become our third U.S. president, Thomas Jefferson. It speaks to the many issues that forced the United States of America to declare its existence … and to go to war with the English Crown.

After the last shots were fired at Yorktown, Va., the hard began. It would take several years. Finally, there emerged a Constitution. The nation’s governing framework was given life.

It is under assault today, which brings me to the point I want to make with utmost pride and vigor.

Which is that the Constitution, i believe fully, is strong enough to withstand these challenges from within our borders. A presidential candidate lost an election three years ago but refused to concede the obvious. He sought to overthrow the government as it sought to certify the results of the 2020 election. He failed only because members of his own political party refused to do his bidding.

They were faithful to the Constitution and the oath they took to honor, defend and protect it.

Our Constitution has withstood many challenges over its more than two centuries of life. I will stand foursquare on my belief it will stand firm against this challenge and — I will hope — against any that arise in the future.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

World has gone bonkers!

I am not usually prone to wondering about the state of play in today’s world, wondering out loud about contemporary trends.

But so help me, I cannot fathom these public opinion polls showing Donald Trump actually defeating President Biden in head to head matchups prior to the 2024 presidential election.

The guy — that would be Trump — was impeached twice while he worked in the White House. He has been indicted twice for felony crimes; one of the indictments came from the Manhattan District Attorney, the other from the U.S. Justice Department.

It all makes me wonder: what the hell is wrong with this nation of ours?

I am heartened by the knowledge that we are a long way from Election Day. Polls can change.

Yes, I tend to trust polling as a stop-gap measure of the national mood.

I am just shaking my noggin.

Johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience