The water around here, pumped to the surface from the Ogallala Aquifer, is hard – full of dissolved minerals and high in calcium and magnesium carbonates.

And it sure does seem odd that water could be harmful enough to require a warning sign, but hard water can indeed damage paint on a car. Really!

I’ve never seen a sign like this before, though, and my brain just refused to believe was it was seeing, and translated the sign to read “Hard Hat Area” but that didn’t make any more sense. Sometimes my brain gets ahead of itself like that, but it usually comes around. Eventually.

at the abandoned golf course
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 3.8.2019