Preface to all nine parts: today is Eclipse Day, so I am giving myself an exceptionally rare day off. I have no idea if I'll see anything, because there's so much cloud cover. In spite of that, I had devoted the entire day to this quest, so I'm setting up some posts in advance so my dear readers do not get bored. Once this all blows over, I'll be sure to tell you about whatever adventures I had during my Texas journey.

I recently did a survey amongst you folks so we could collectively assess how much of a “bubble” each of us lives in. I was pleased just how many of you took the survey. Here are the collective results; I have highlighted the “winning” answer for each question. Thank you!