Opinion

The growth of industrial-scale users of power could strain the Texas power grid, ERCOT’s chief announced last week. The Dallas Morning News reported Pablo Vegas, the agency’s CEO, said bitcoin miners and artificial intelligence data centers going in across the state, as well as industrial growth in the Permian Basin, could create the need for a massive buildup of power transmission lines in the future.

What becomes of our achievements after we are gone from this world? We labor to achieve prestige, power, position, and prosperity... but to what end? What remains when we depart from this life and enter eternity? As I reflected this past week on things I have seen and done, I had a profound realization. All that remains of a legacy is how the man impacted the people around him.

Education Coordinating Board, could well have been kidded unmercifully if details of his part time teaching in retirement had been widely known. He taught graduate classes in higher education at two locations-- in the same semester.

My ancient Uncle Mort is not one to speak negatively of neighbors, unless they live at least three cattleguards away. He recently “spilled the beans” on a neighbor who lives so deep in the thicket that no one passes his house going to town.

Early voting began Monday, April 22 for municipal, school board and various bond elections. It ends on April 30 with Saturday, May 4 being election day. What is on the ballot depends on where you live.

Any endeavor worth undertaking will likely be fraught with peril. Such is the state of man in life’s venture to be fruitful and productive. In our day-to-day existence, mundanity can become the norm. I realized this last week when I opened my mouth to a friend and stated, “My life has become a grind.” Since that day, life has been beyond mundane.

Colorado State University researchers are calling this year’s hurricane season forecast “the most aggressive” ever, the Texas Standard reported. They say there is a 54% chance a hurricane will strike the Texas coast, and a 25% chance it will be major.

What separates us from the light? Early this week, it was an eclipse. A strange phenomenon where the moon passes between the Earth and the sun in the middle of the day. None of this is news to us in North Texas. What appears noteworthy is the sheer attraction the event garnered.

Enough already. The eclipse of April 8 has been smothered with coverage by both mass and social media. Americans--some who flail at things that go “bump” in the night-yearned for even more darkness! They carved out time from busy schedules and squeezed funds from their budgets to make their way to a slice of the globe where the solar eclipse darkened the day for some four minutes--give or take a few seconds.

The name “Blackwood” has been as closely linked to Southern Gospel Music as ham and eggs to diners, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz to TV, and Tarzan and Jane to jungle movies. The family has endeared itself to a grateful nation for their renditions of gospel music for some 125 years.