Down The Drain

We are experiencing a drought here in California. Actually the word "we" should be "some" as their are those that don't experience they just use. My son was visiting the dentist today and while waiting I did some reading but the wait grew longer than expected so I walked to a park with lots of tall shade trees. It had been a while since visiting here and the trees have grown tall unlike so many that are over trimmed. When I returned to the office the manager saw my book and asked wondering how I came about reading it. The colorful cover of I, Rigoberta Menchu AN INDIAN WOMAN IN GUATEMALA translated by Ann Wright is dog eared and worn with many pages highlighted, margin marked and is stamped Campus Connections USED BOOK and the stack of bar code labels resembled the annual tag on my Volkswagen van license plate. One previous reader has circled various words and had written in Spanish their translations (this would be the inverse for me).

In Chapter X Menchu writes the following: "We worship --or rather not worship but respect-- a lot of things to do with the natural world, the most important things for us. For instance, to us, water is sacred. Our parents tell us when we're very small not to waste water, even when we have it. Water is pure, clean, and gives life to man. Without water we cannot survive, nor could our ancestors have survived. The idea that water is sacred is in us children, and we never stop thinking of it as something pure."

To the right of our driveway is a storm drain and cross the street there is an identical drain. On the the other side of the cross street there is another drain that dumps into the park. The county workers came and cleaned the trash out of the drains last week and with the bottoms of the drains clean I can hear the water running into the drain on the other side of the street most of the day. The water in the gutters doesn't run 24/7 as most people don't water late at night just mostly during the heat of the day when they should not.


Two weeks ago there was a broken sprinkler head that went off every morning like Old Faithful spraying the property owners car in the street but they didn't seem it worth the problem to repair it. Finally I caught the neighbor in her driveway and told her about it and she had a repair person come out and correct it. About the same time I e-mailed a picture of another Old Faithful to the city with the location of the problem. This sprinkler was not on a residential line and had much more pressure and a much higher geyser. The city replied that it was the responsibility of a Home Owners Association and the city contacted them, but the repair didn't happen, I contacted the city again and they told me how to contact the Home Owners Association which I did but they didn't think it was their property and the manager called the city back. Then city inspector when back out and painted a large orange arrow on the sidewalk so the sprinkler's location could be seen but didn't repair it. The city then e-mail me back that it was really on the property of the church next to the sidewalk. Then I e-mail the church and they had it repaired. While in conversing with the city it was suggested that I call the water district about the problem and maybe they could locate the proper person for repair. I understand the city reluctance to repair the broken sprinkler located on private property and the inability of the inspector to accomplish repair as inspector just inspect. The pictures shown are from four front yards that are over watered daily and those example seem typical and were taken without walking any distance. In one photograph the hose used for additional watering can be see. All of the closest four neighbors water with an additional sprinkler attached to their hose as they somehow feel that their lawns are not getting enough water. Maybe more concern will develop when it is too late.
Previous Word Of The day


Tailback

British : a line of vehicles caused by a traffic slowdown or stoppage

More than 500 motorbike riders revved off in convoy from a service station outside Manchester at 8am and staged a "go-slow" demonstration against escalating prices at the petrol pump. Onlookers - and even those caught in the disruption - applauded in support as they sat in the major tailbacks on the M62 and M60 around Greater Manchester caused by the protest