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    Tattered Jeans

    Facing the toothless man & setting the animals free: Big adventures at the fair

    Katie Oxford
    Nov 10, 2010 | 1:13 pm
    • One night from atop the Ferris wheel when the animal barn looked like a meatloaf and the windows popped like a row of buttons all ablaze, my friend, Jill,and I sat perched in our seat, plotting.
    • At age 10, I was drawn to the animal barn where the smell of sawdust, Nannygoats and the ink spotted pig was strong and sweet and pressed at the doorwaylike the big bosom of my second grade school teacher.
    • So we stepped inside the animal barn like testing a tub of hot water with onetoe. Rusted fans made a dull whistling sound as the animals lay under singlestrung light bulbs the color of cooked corn. A light rain had begun outsideminutes earlier. Mixed with the odors in the barn it reminded me of my uncle’spasture just after he’d mowed.
    • “WHAT THE HELL YOU GIRLS THINK YOU’RE DOIN?!” he hollered, a metal pole grippedin his hand and pointing towards me.
    • Jill’s voice sounded from the other side of the barn, from someplace soulful."R-U-N!” she screamed.

    Each fall, to every kid’s delight, the Southeast Texas Fair came to Beaumont, Texas.

    At age 10, I was drawn to the animal barn where the smell of sawdust, Nanny goats and the ink spotted pig was strong and sweet and pressed at the doorway like the big bosom of my second grade school teacher.

    A toothless man was the keeper of this barn, red headed, freckled faced and as thin as the metal pole he carried.

    There was no peace inside these pens. Whenever the keeper walked near, I noticed the animals would move away, like water, tilting in a pan. When they could go no further, a backwash of livestock, crying, spilled in his direction.

    One night from atop the Ferris wheel when the animal barn looked like a meat loaf and the windows popped like a row of buttons all ablaze, my friend, Jill, and I sat perched in our seat, plotting.

    Jill was my friend who dared to do the most dangerous things. This made her the most fun friend to be around. If Jill was game, I was brave. If she wasn’t, I was a wimp. I didn’t dare…dare without her.

    “If we go late,” Jill said, “we could just sneak through the front door."

    Her face seemed as lit up from enthusiasm as the lights reflecting from below.

    I wasn’t as confident.

    “Wouldn’t it be better,” I suggested, “if we crawled through one of the windows and just jumped down in the pen?”

    “That’ll make the animals start squealing and then the guy will come runnin’ for SURE!” she answered.

    So we stepped inside the animal barn like testing a tub of hot water with one toe. Rusted fans made a dull whistling sound as the animals lay under single strung light bulbs the color of cooked corn. A light rain had begun outside minutes earlier. Mixed with the odors in the barn it reminded me of my uncle’s pasture just after he’d mowed.

    With no keeper in sight, Jill moved to one aisle, I to another, carefully cupping the metal part of the first latch to muffle sound. After that, I was less cautious. For every gate I opened, my fear grew and quivered on a wire between the toothless man and thrill of success. It was like I’d jumped in a river and was swimming like hell for the other side only now, as images of the keeper grew greater, there was a snake on my heels.

    I’d almost reached the last pen when suddenly, I saw his face, glaring at me from in between boards, and everything on it looking as red as his hair. In an instant, he darted around the pen, rushing forward as though some huge body of water was propelling him from behind.

    “WHAT THE HELL YOU GIRLS THINK YOU’RE DOIN?!” he hollered, a metal pole gripped in his hand and pointing towards me.

    Jill’s voice sounded from the other side of the barn, from someplace soulful.

    "R-U-N!” she screamed.

    I turned and ran toward the opening, my eyes feeling as big as burgers. The sound of the keeper’s foot grew closer and heavier. I was so terrified, it felt like my legs were going to detach from the rest of me and run on ahead. Amazingly, we were faster than the man riding the wave and Jill and I hit the barn door like a one, two punch.

    The keeper’s voice boomed from behind us, “YOU GIRLS GIT THE HELL OUTTA HERE AND DON’T YOU NEVER COME BACK!”

    We never lost stride. The metal pole clanged against more metal and echoed from the barn like the hammering sound of a blacksmith. We didn’t stop running until we reached the other side of the Fairgrounds. In between jumping for joy (literally), we sucked in air and laughed some more.

    Later that night, feeling safe under my covers, I thought about Jill and how glad I was to have a friend who dared to do such deeds. That we’d taken matters into our small hands and changed the world, however briefly.

    I thought about the animals. The deep sadness and fear I’d seen on their faces. I remembered that oddly, none had stepped through the opened gates. A profound sadness came over me wondering why.

    I thought about the toothless man and wished that something bad would happen to him.

    I hoped that someday, those animals would be in a place where they truly belonged.

    I’d been as scared that day as I’d ever been before but even so, Jill and I had outrun something evil and for a precious few seconds…those animals and two kids were free.

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    Summer swelter

    Texas charges up as No. 2 state most at risk for summer power outages

    John Egan
    Jun 11, 2025 | 5:00 pm
    Electric wire towers in the sunset
    Getty Images
    Texas led the list of states with the most hours of summertime power outages.

    Warning: Houston could be in for an especially uncomfortable summer. A new study puts Texas at No. 2 among the states most at risk for power outages this summer. Michigan tops the list.

    Solar energy company Wolf River Electric analyzed the number of large-scale outages that left more than 5,000 utility customers, including homes, stores and schools, without summertime electricity from 2019 to 2023. During that period, Texas experienced 7,164 summertime power outages.

    Despite Michigan being hit with more summertime outages, Texas led the list of states with the most hours of summertime power outages — an annual average of 35,440. That works out to 1,477 days.

    “This means power cuts in Texas tend to last longer, making summer especially tough for residents and businesses,” the study says.

    This news comes on the heels of another study that said Houston is among nine major U.S. cities that now experience at least 50 more days per year with above-normal summer temperatures than they did in 1970. The average summer temperature in Houston rose by 4.6 degrees from 1970 to 2024, according to Climate Central.

    The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the electric grid serving 90 percent of the state, predicts its system will set a monthly record for peak demand this August — 85,759 megawatts. That would exceed the current record of 85,508 megawatts, dating back to August 2023.

    In 2025, natural gas will account for 37.7 percent of ERCOT’s summertime power-generating capacity, followed by wind (22.9 percent) and solar (19 percent), according to an ERCOT fact sheet.

    This year, ERCOT expects four months to surpass peak demand of 80,000 megawatts:

    • June 2025 — 82,243 megawatts
    • July 2025 — 84,103 megawatts
    • August 2025 — 85,759 megawatts
    • September 2025 — 80,773 megawatts

    One megawatt is enough power to serve about 250 residential customers amid peak demand, according to ERCOT. Using that figure, the projected peak of 85,759 megawatts in August would supply enough power to serve more than 21.4 million residential customers in Texas.

    Data centers, artificial intelligence, and population growth are driving up power demand in Texas, straining the ERCOT grid. In January, ERCOT laid out a nearly $33 billion plan to boost power transmission capabilities in its service area.

    ---

    This story originally appeared on our sister site, EnergyCapitalHTX.

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