We're many months into the Dreadful California Drought. Water is being sucked out of our reservoirs at an alarming rate, and life without enough water... sucks.
Guilt abounds. Is it more wrong to wash goo out of recyclable containers or to throw the sticky containers into the trash? I'm way behind on laundry. Should I catch up, or let it fester until we get some rain? Should I flush less? Shower less?
Then we have the bucket-juggle. Our shower is never the right temperature when we turn on the tap. You can't let clean water run down the drain just because it's heart-stoppingly cold. So you run the water into a bucket until it warms up. You empty the bucket into the watering can, and use it to keep the vegetable garden alive. We have many stairs, so it's a complicated dance.
Then you see others' pristine green lawns, you see people washing their cars, or emerging, shower-fresh, from their homes every day. But I'll keep silent, because I don't know what sacrifices they've made for that indulgence.
Some sanctimonious twits don't keep silent. Nothing's worse than some jerk who thinks everybody but him leaves the water running when they brush their teeth. ("I use a cup of store-bought water from Canada, Sirrah, so I win. Now get out, and give me all your "holier-than-thou" points.")
The worst is the foreboding. We've had droughts here before. They ended. Logically, this one will end too. But there's that pesky climate change, so I worry. Is the new normal?
Every day I look at our dead lawn and wonder if we should give up on grass. But what instead? Hubby and I took a vote Re: Rocks and it was 2-0 against. Likewise for concrete. A "feature" would be nice but it'd have to be big, unoffensive to an eclectic neighborhood, and graffiti/vandal proof. My choice would be a fountain! Oh, wait...
No comments:
Post a Comment