The flares at night, glow wide and bright, deep in the heart 'o TEXAS

Driving home last night, Dow was flaring like a sumbitch.

You could see it well north of Angleton.

It reminded me of one night not long ago when Scooter and Scout were coming home from Houston and phoned the house to ask if the damn town was on fire. I said, no, I don't think so, but wait a minute, lemme go outside. I went out in the backyard and couldn't smell that distinctive smell that fills the air when there's a house fire. Then I turned on the police scanner, just to make sure. Nope, town's not on fire, I told them.

It turned out they just saw one of the Dow flares from a distance.

Anyway, that's sorta how it looked like last night, so I cruised on by the plant to get a look (see pictures!) It was bright to enough to read a book by, if the book you were reading was one of those large print kind. That's pretty bright. 'Course, nobody batted an eye. People just drove on by it, didn't look twice. It's just normal life here in the Petrochemical Underarm.

The air kinda had a heavier-than-usual chemical smell, so if I die tonight in my sleep, get my widow and only offspring a cheap lawyer. Eh, probably just a bunch o' ethylene. Shoot, we pour that on our flapjacks for breakfast.

No emissions reports filed yet, so I'm not sure what kinda product they were burning, or what kinda emissions event might be taking place, but if they file an officials emissions event report, I'll let you know.
[more pictures here]