Drought Conditions, Water Conservation, Science & a To-Do List
Heard an interesting article this morning on Morning Edition on NPR while on my way into work.
For those of you who don't live in the southeast, we're in some pretty severe drought conditions and have been for sometime now. Now that it's starting to turn Spring and I'm considering putting in new shrubs in front of my house and a couple of flower beds out back, I've been trying to think about more drought resistant plants. I try to shower less and for shorter times, turn the water off while brushing my teeth, don't do laundry as often, and take other conservatory measures. Of course, I also grew up on well water, so water conservation isn't exactly news to me. Sometimes when the rock quarry near my parents' house blasted during the summer, not only would our water become cloudy, the level of the water in our well would seriously drop. Thus, short showers, water efficient appliances, reusing bath water for plants, etc.
Anyway, I know that the people in the Atlanta area in particular are facing some really severe water shortages. What this article was talking about (back on topic) was how the drought was affecting horses in the area. Most people who own horses only spend about $2000 a year on feed and hay for their animals which are then able to get most of their nutrition by feeding on grass. Well, with the drought, there hasn't been as much grass for the animals to feed on, so you have to buy hay for them. Except that there hasn't been as much hay either, and the hay that is available has risen to like $9 for a square bail, which I'm told is fairly high. So there's all these people around the southeast who can no longer afford to feed and take care of their horses, and these animals are being literally abandoned in fields or given up for free to people in the hopes that they'll be cared for. It's a really sad, unfortunate situation.
I know that on a more personal level, the drought has really affected my life as well in the last several months.
For those of you who don't know, I work for a law firm that practices workers' compensation defense, which means that we represent the Employer/Insurer against people who file workers' compensation claims. There's a huge number of fraudulent claims out there, so the next time you start hating on your Insurance company because your premiums are so high, you can thank the godless sons of bitches who are constantly suing over fictional injuries because they're too lazy to work. ANYWAY.
We noticed a few months ago that our workload had really dropped and we weren't getting nearly as many cases as we normally do. There's always a frenzy to settle at the end of the year and a rush to open new files at the beginning of the year, but it just didn't happen this time around. Well, my boss went to a conference around the end of December and found out that this was happening to both defense and Claimants' lawyers all over the state. And the cause of this was the drought.
Apparently a lot of the business that our industry received was from suits from people who work for landscaping businesses. Businesses that worked for private homes or new subdivisions or even larger companies designing, putting in and upkeeping their landscapes. Well, with the drought, people can no longer afford to keep up their plants and landscape, which means that folks in that industry aren't working. Which means they aren't having work-related injuries. Which means they aren't filing suit. Which means that we aren't getting claims to defend.
So the drought is actually hurting the legal industry as well. The poor housing market hasn't helped us either, but I'm not going to get into that too.
And you know, I'm not going to debate climate change or global warming or anything of that nature, because I have very strong feelings about those things and I know that some people on my f-list have very strong feelings of a different vein. And I flat out don't want to argue! Arguing about science really gets to me, man. Like, in a way that politics will never touch. You can think that George W. Bush is a saint and a godlike figure and I'll just roll my eyes and ignore it. But you start talking to me about creationism like you believe in it and I'm liable to stab you in the throat with a pen. Srsly. Them's fightin' words.
So yeah. Even if you don't believe in climate change or global warming or the fact that we share a common ancestor with chimpanzees, the one thing you can't deny is that we're in a drought. We don't know how long it's going to last and you can never tell how it's going to affect your life. So try and help conserve some water, folks. Turn your faucet off while you brush your teeth or wash your face. Take shorter showers. Look at water efficient appliances (I'm told you can get tax credits on them). Think about planting native species in your gardens. Suck up the fact that your car is yellow and covered with pollen and don't wash it every week. Think about the horses and people who are suffering, the folks in Atlanta who don't know where they're going to be getting their water from, the farmers who can't afford to keep their farms operating, and even the dirty rat bastard lawyers who have sweet secretaries that need the work. Save water. <3 your planet.
Stepping off of my soapbox, I've got a bunch of things to do in the next few days and weekend.
+Buy a gift for Adam & Marybeth's baby shower (Suggestions?)
+Bake cookies for said shower
+Buy 9 yards of cheap white muslin
+Wash, trim, dye & sew said muslin into curtains for dining room
+Buy a new vacuum cleaner
+Replace the windowpane in the upstairs bathroom
+Measure and price a new kitchen window
+Vacuum, sweep & mop the house
+Do laundry
+Strip and repaint the front porch swing
+Buy plants for flower boxes and pots
+Hang pictures in the dining room
+Put boxes in study in storage
+Clean out car
+Change sheets in guest bedroom
+Switch curtains between bathrooms
+Plan garden bed for back yard
+Put up trellis and plant confederate jasmine
+Price a new tower to replace my computer
Might go and spend Saturday night up at the river house and watch some movies depending on how much I get done Friday & Saturday. We'll see. If you can't reach us Saturday night, consider that we're hiding from folks up there.
For those of you who don't live in the southeast, we're in some pretty severe drought conditions and have been for sometime now. Now that it's starting to turn Spring and I'm considering putting in new shrubs in front of my house and a couple of flower beds out back, I've been trying to think about more drought resistant plants. I try to shower less and for shorter times, turn the water off while brushing my teeth, don't do laundry as often, and take other conservatory measures. Of course, I also grew up on well water, so water conservation isn't exactly news to me. Sometimes when the rock quarry near my parents' house blasted during the summer, not only would our water become cloudy, the level of the water in our well would seriously drop. Thus, short showers, water efficient appliances, reusing bath water for plants, etc.
Anyway, I know that the people in the Atlanta area in particular are facing some really severe water shortages. What this article was talking about (back on topic) was how the drought was affecting horses in the area. Most people who own horses only spend about $2000 a year on feed and hay for their animals which are then able to get most of their nutrition by feeding on grass. Well, with the drought, there hasn't been as much grass for the animals to feed on, so you have to buy hay for them. Except that there hasn't been as much hay either, and the hay that is available has risen to like $9 for a square bail, which I'm told is fairly high. So there's all these people around the southeast who can no longer afford to feed and take care of their horses, and these animals are being literally abandoned in fields or given up for free to people in the hopes that they'll be cared for. It's a really sad, unfortunate situation.
I know that on a more personal level, the drought has really affected my life as well in the last several months.
For those of you who don't know, I work for a law firm that practices workers' compensation defense, which means that we represent the Employer/Insurer against people who file workers' compensation claims. There's a huge number of fraudulent claims out there, so the next time you start hating on your Insurance company because your premiums are so high, you can thank the godless sons of bitches who are constantly suing over fictional injuries because they're too lazy to work. ANYWAY.
We noticed a few months ago that our workload had really dropped and we weren't getting nearly as many cases as we normally do. There's always a frenzy to settle at the end of the year and a rush to open new files at the beginning of the year, but it just didn't happen this time around. Well, my boss went to a conference around the end of December and found out that this was happening to both defense and Claimants' lawyers all over the state. And the cause of this was the drought.
Apparently a lot of the business that our industry received was from suits from people who work for landscaping businesses. Businesses that worked for private homes or new subdivisions or even larger companies designing, putting in and upkeeping their landscapes. Well, with the drought, people can no longer afford to keep up their plants and landscape, which means that folks in that industry aren't working. Which means they aren't having work-related injuries. Which means they aren't filing suit. Which means that we aren't getting claims to defend.
So the drought is actually hurting the legal industry as well. The poor housing market hasn't helped us either, but I'm not going to get into that too.
And you know, I'm not going to debate climate change or global warming or anything of that nature, because I have very strong feelings about those things and I know that some people on my f-list have very strong feelings of a different vein. And I flat out don't want to argue! Arguing about science really gets to me, man. Like, in a way that politics will never touch. You can think that George W. Bush is a saint and a godlike figure and I'll just roll my eyes and ignore it. But you start talking to me about creationism like you believe in it and I'm liable to stab you in the throat with a pen. Srsly. Them's fightin' words.
So yeah. Even if you don't believe in climate change or global warming or the fact that we share a common ancestor with chimpanzees, the one thing you can't deny is that we're in a drought. We don't know how long it's going to last and you can never tell how it's going to affect your life. So try and help conserve some water, folks. Turn your faucet off while you brush your teeth or wash your face. Take shorter showers. Look at water efficient appliances (I'm told you can get tax credits on them). Think about planting native species in your gardens. Suck up the fact that your car is yellow and covered with pollen and don't wash it every week. Think about the horses and people who are suffering, the folks in Atlanta who don't know where they're going to be getting their water from, the farmers who can't afford to keep their farms operating, and even the dirty rat bastard lawyers who have sweet secretaries that need the work. Save water. <3 your planet.
Stepping off of my soapbox, I've got a bunch of things to do in the next few days and weekend.
+Buy a gift for Adam & Marybeth's baby shower (Suggestions?)
+Bake cookies for said shower
+Buy 9 yards of cheap white muslin
+Wash, trim, dye & sew said muslin into curtains for dining room
+Buy a new vacuum cleaner
+Replace the windowpane in the upstairs bathroom
+Measure and price a new kitchen window
+Vacuum, sweep & mop the house
+Do laundry
+Strip and repaint the front porch swing
+Buy plants for flower boxes and pots
+Hang pictures in the dining room
+Put boxes in study in storage
+Clean out car
+Change sheets in guest bedroom
+Switch curtains between bathrooms
+Plan garden bed for back yard
+Put up trellis and plant confederate jasmine
+Price a new tower to replace my computer
Might go and spend Saturday night up at the river house and watch some movies depending on how much I get done Friday & Saturday. We'll see. If you can't reach us Saturday night, consider that we're hiding from folks up there.