Duck Crossing Signs ... but down to 4... then 3

Good news and bad. "Duck crossing" signs have been installed in our area, probably Monday, thanks to a call to the City. However, one of the twins was hit Tuesday, and on Wednesday afternoon there was no sign of Momma Duck.

Mayor Story Inaugurated

Mayor Jim Story, a Shady Brook resident, was installed as Mayor last night.

Mayor Story; Wine Sales Approved

The Star Telegram reports unofficially that
Jim Story won the mayoral race by 50.9% of the votes. The sale of wine was approved by 87%. The swearing in ceremony will be Sept. 19.

HEBISD Hurricane Relief Efforts

The HEBISD Clothes Closet can use your donations of clothing. I understand the school district has already enrolled about 20 kids from the areas affected. The Clothes Closet is open 10am - 2pm M-W-F and is located near the intersection of Pipeline and Raider, at the FEW Center, behind Central JH.

Bedford Hurricane Relief Efforts

Bedford Police & Fire Departments have been out at Pennington Field and the intersection of Hwy 183 Access roads and Central Drive collecting monetary donations for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. They will be out there today (Saturday, Sept. 3) from 11 - 5 pm accepting monetary donations as well.

In addition, the Fire Department is accepting donations of NON-PERISHABLE food donations at Central Fire Station, 1816 Bedford Road. If you can provide any items, please drop them off at Central Fire Station.

Hurricane Katrina information

Do you need to find out about a particular area in New Orleans? A site based on Google Maps* is collecting data that may be helpful:

www.scipionus.com

Here's an article in WIRED Magazine about the project. My son knows the young man who came up with the idea.

If you need other Hurricane Katrina information, including more message boards, the Dallas Public Library is compiling an online
Hurricane Katrina Disaster Resource

You can also get to it from their home page
Dallas Public Library

The resource guide has links to vital information for those who have been displaced by the storm. The first part is Dallas-related but scroll down and you will find much more that would be useful to folks anywhere.

*Google Maps

Includes both regular maps and the corresponding satellite picture - check out your house!

Duck Identification

Well, it may not be a good thing to now be able to identify individual ducks, but each is different and here is how:

Momma -- the smallest one with all the red around her eyes

Her 4 sons (my guess since they all turned out much bigger than Momma). At a glance they look identical, but actually two are slightly different:

White Nose -- you will notice that only one drake has a white beak tip
White Face -- the other 3 guys have black "noses" but one has white around his eyes
The Twins -- the other two have black noses and look very similar but one has more black markings on his beak than the other