Our Water Broke

Our backyard has a new water feature.

It's called rain, I think. After a high temp of 101° and probably around 30 days of 100+ temps, we are finally getting a deluge. The satellite TV is out (damn it! NoBama speech!) and I'm hoping our power stays on long enough to finish dinner.

Oops, there went a power surge right there.

Fun With Water

What a fantastic ad! That's something you don't hear me say often.

Hurricane Ike, R-Texas

It just figures that a hurricane coming ashore in Texas would have all the compassion of a Republican, and leave behind a fucking mess for someone to clean up. Here in Austin we could have used 2 or 3 few inches. We got nothing. Not a drop. The bounty was reserved for those who needed it the least, and millions are suffering.

Senator Barack Obama canceled an appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” aides said, because he felt it would be inappropriate.

Wise man. McCain would have had a field day...another week's worth of inappropriate advertising material.

Water Conservation Part 2

Last month I posted about our water bill and the monthly usage, and I made a pledge to reduce it during the upcoming month. I didn't do everything I considered, such as keeping buckets at the shower to catch the cold water until it warms up, but I did consistently turn the water off to a trickle while shampooing and conditioning.

Here are the statistics:

6/12 - 7/14: 3,400 gallons at a cost of $10.61.
7/14 - 8/12: 2,700 gallons at a cost of $8.91.

The cost savings doesn't put a meal on the table but the important thing is that we saved about 700 gallons in one month. Imagine if everyone in drought-stricken areas did this.

The city of Austin charges the lowest rates for water based on the first 2,000 gallons. Basically 93-cents per thousand. Anything over 2,000 gallons the rates jumps to $2.43 per thousand. And I suspect there are higher rates at some other thresholds as there should be.

I would like to reduce by another 700 gallons and see if we can keep our consumption just under the 2,000 gallon per month level. At that point our monthly water bill would be less than $2.00 vs. the $9 to $10 which we average. That most definitely would buy us a meal.

Crossposted at B3

Water Conservation Part 1

I'm going to be conducting a test to see how much I can reduce our monthly water consumption. Between June 11 and July 14 we consumed 3,400 gallons of water. Our water bill is only $10.61 for that amount so it's not as as though this is a high priority from a financial standpoint. I just know we waste a lot of water.

I'd like to keep a large bucket near the shower and use that to capture the water I waste while waiting on the warm water to make its way from the water heater at the other end of the house. That could be used for watering plants. I'd probably need several buckets though and that's not going to make a huge dent in that 3,400 gallons per month.

Another step I've already taken is to shut the water flow down to a trickle while I'm showering, shampooing, lathering up, and scrubbing. I suspect over the course of a month that should make some impact given the amount of time I spend tending to my mane.

We shall see. I should have data available around the 3rd week of August.

A Cheap Alternative To The Drug Store

Concerned about the high cost of drugs and other prescription meds? At the rate things are going, pretty soon all you'll need to do is just drink your tap water. Aside from possibly relieving a headache, maybe if I drink enough water I'll get a 4-hour boner.

A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.

But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

Oh, have I mentioned lately that our world is fucked up?

Arizona Running For Least-Hospitable State

Arizona Republicans are considering yet another ballot proposal in November to turn back the single greatest threat to our civilization (aside from terrorists): gay marriage.

Republican lawmakers on Monday proposed asking voters in November to amend the Arizona Constitution to ban same-sex marriage in the state, which was the first to turn down such a measure.

The proposal was backed by 16 of 30 state senators, and an identical proposal was introduced in the House. Both chambers would have to approve the measure in a vote for it to be included on the ballot.

It's always amusing to wonder how conditions in Arizona, or any state, are such that lawmakers have nothing better to do with their time than push discriminatory laws onto a minority group, particularly after the apparent success in creating an environment of hostility toward those folks whose origins lie south of the border.

While it is too early to know for certain, a consensus is developing among economists, business people and immigration groups that the weakening economy coupled with recent curbs on illegal immigration are steering Hispanic immigrants out of the state.

The Arizona economy, heavily dependent on growth and a Latino work force, has been slowing for months. Meanwhile, the state has enacted one of the country’s toughest laws to punish employers who hire illegal immigrants, and the county sheriff here in Phoenix has been enforcing federal immigration laws by rounding up people living here illegally.

Unfortunately, it's driving away many legal residents as well. Many legals have a spouse, other relatives or friends whose illegal status makes life difficult and nightmarish. When coupled with the harsh attitudes and increasingly inhospitable laws they are often leaving the state together as a group.

In the fourth quarter of 2007 the apartment-vacancy rate in metropolitan Phoenix rose to 11.2 percent from 9 percent in the same quarter of 2006, with much higher rates of 15 percent or more in heavily Latino neighborhoods.

[...]

Juan Jose Araujo, 44, is here legally. His wife, however, is not and is pressing for the family to return to Mexico because of the difficulty in finding a job and what the family considers a growing anti-immigrant climate.

[...]

“We don’t have family or anything in Mexico,” said Mr. Araujo, who has lived in the United States for 24 years. “I wouldn’t have anywhere to go there, but we have to consider it.”

Yes, the politicians and citizens responsible for this are the ones who are so concerned about families and marriage. Right.

Perhaps if they could all turn away from the bigotry and contempt they have for certain humans, they might see there really are greater issues of concern on the horizon which need to be addressed. Things like Lake Mead going dry for starters.

Lake Mead, the vast reservoir for the Colorado River water that sustains the fast-growing cities of Phoenix and Las Vegas, could lose water faster than previously thought and run dry within 13 years, according to a new study by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

The lake, located in Nevada and Arizona, has a 50 percent chance of becoming unusable by 2021, the scientists say, if the demand for water remains unchanged and if human-induced climate change follows climate scientists’ moderate forecasts, resulting in a reduction in average river flows.

But I'm not here to tell Arizona lawmakers how to conduct affairs in the land of John McCain. It's quite enough for me to sit here and observe their much-deserved karma from afar.

Conspicuous Consumption of Water

While Atlanta has been suffering through a severe drought, as has much of the southeast, one homeowner seems to have been oblivious.

Over the past six months the address has used an average of 390,000 gallons of water. Last month it was 440,000 – up 15% from last October when there was no crisis. That one home would drain the nearby water plant’s filtration field in less than a year.

WSB Atlanta has the story and a video.

As the New York Times noted, Chris G. Carlos, the homeowner with a huge thirst, is not high on the popularity list in the Atlanta area.

By comparison, the average consumption in the United States is about 150 gallons a day per person, and in the Atlanta metropolitan area about 183 gallons.

[...]

Mr. Carlos has apparently been using the water not only to flush nine toilets and maintain a swimming pool but also to refresh nearly four acres of lush landscaping around his white-columned, red brick home.

There are people who seriously deserve to be slapped senseless, and Mr. Carlos is one such person. The problem is, how do you slap someone senseless who is already seriously lacking any?