Drought makes me wet

Yesterday Governor Mark Warner of Virginia issued an executive order to combat the drought in Virginia. Among other things, he prohibited all watering of lawns and washing of cars in residences. Yes, we have been having a severe rain shortage. Only about once a week or less has there been rain all summer long, and usually it is only a fraction of an inch.

But Governor Warner, have you opened your window recently? Don't you see the drought from outside your window? Don't you hear the pitter patter of drought hitting the windows and the roof? Do you see the drought all over the streets, in places collecting in puddles? Have you gone outside recently? Did the drought make you all wet? A lot of us feel our Labor Day weekend has been ruined by drought. Gray drought clouds hover and threaten in the sky, occasionally dumping drought on us and getting us all wet. The weather bureau keeps predicting the sun will come back, but the grayness and the wetness keeps going on and on. Forecasts of sunny turn to gray as we approach them.

To me this is a bad time to issue this edict. We are already having to deal with the rain, clouds, and coolness in what is supposed to be the last weekend of summer in the year. Then we hear that we can't water our lawns because of the drought. Makes one feel like going out and watering anyway just to defy the governor. But that doesn't work, because of the Sprinkling Paradox. You see, with all this water we have been getting lately, including flood warnings, we don't need to water our lawns. The time when we need to water is when there has not been rain for some time; watering merely provides what the skies don't. But that's when they restrict you with this odd-even system and then prohibit you from watering altogether. That's the paradox: If you need to water, you can't; If you can water, you don't need to. Sort of like Catch 22.

I do think we should conserve; flush toilets only when there's brown in it; wash full loads and so forth. But I think Governor Warner should have waited until at least five straight days of rainless weather before issuing this executive order. The worst time to issue it is during the midst of a rainy spell.

September Coming

It is now the dawn of Labor Day weekend 2002. The day is supposed to be a celebration for the laboring person, the working man and woman, and is celebrated on May 1 in most other places in the world. In this country, instead it seems to be the beginning of a year. It is in the Jewish calendar. Should New Year's Day be moved to September 1? September is the beginning of school. This includes nursery schools, grammar schools, high schools, colleges, and universities. Many other activities begin in September. Toastmaster contest season begins in September. Unitarian Universalist churches seem to begin a new year in September; attendance dramatically rises and new activities galore fill the scene. It is also the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, so it is somewhat sad in Minnesota, but in Texas it is a welcome relief. It is the year of the final baseball games and the World Series, but that may not happen this year.

This September comes with a number of unusual days. There is September 11, a day that will be etched forever in our memory. Two days later is Friday the 13th, a day of foreboding for the superstitious. And for me on 2002 September 7 I will be 56 years old with 30 years of service, qualifying for retirement at my workplace. I don't intend to do that any time soon, but I have been thinking about it. If you want coincidences, note that 7 x 11 x 13, when doubled, is 2002. By coincidence it is also Rosh Hashanah 5763. That date is now only 9 days away. And after that can anything be possible? Shoot for the heavens?

September, a month to remember.

Blogsnail

All at once since last night Blogger has been slower than a glacier. This of course makes it hard to post blogs. There is no explanation on the Blogger site for the slowness, which does not appear on any other site I try to access. If this keeps up of course I am going to switch to another blogging site. Blogger also had been throwing up Error 530s, but as of late has been publishing the page anyway. Otherwise it seems to work fine, except for my not being able to add an interactive component. I hope this problem clears because any kind of a move is painful.

Drought and Flood

So far this summer we have had a severe drought. Trees were turning their leaves brown even though it is not autumn yet; or at least autumn shouldn't start in August. The reservoirs were really low, many wells were running dry, and all the grass was turning brown. Days were getting really hot since the moisture cools the air. Now all at once it is a flash flood watch. We are getting rain all day long, some of it heavy, up to 3 inches of it. I suppose this might not cause flooding because the water levels are so low, but what this could cause is the official authorities warning about a contradiction. They have already put out a Flash Flood Watch, but they are also meeting in Richmond to decide on what to do about the severe drought. So we could have the oxymoronic situation of the government trying to do something about both drought and floods in the same part of our state.

But that's life. Bang-bang. Feast or famine. All or nothing. Deficit or surplus. We take it when we get it. Too bad we can't save flood water to provide us during droughts.

Baylor and Playboy

Now I hear that a fraternity was suspended at Baylor University in Texas because a bunch of students in it posed for Playboy. Never mind that these were male students and that they had clothes on. Baylor objected to it saying Playboy was salacious. To me this is one of the most ambiguous situations I have seen. Playboy is good since it expresses liberation from the prison-like sexual mores of our society. It is not good because it exploits women (why can't they have male nudes every once in a while?). It is not good because it is gaudily commercial. Baylor is good because it is resisting an ad empire, but Baylor is not good because it says the magazine is "salacious", when actually much good literature has appeared in it, and despite their students having clothes on in the group shot. Fraternities are good because they encourage students to relate to each other. Fraternities are not good because of their hazing, drunken parties, and other crude practices. Football is not good because it is a violent sport and because people make too much of a production of it, but it can be exciting at times. I don't know who to favor here. I would come down on the side of the students (and Playboy) in this case, because they have their clothes on.

Rainbow SUUSI

I started to finish what I couldn't at SUUSI - a song from my songwriting class with Peter Mayer. The idea centered around a dance with a woman where we come together from places where some disaster has struck - a fire or a flood, for instance. I felt that SUUSI was such a dance this year. When I free associated with it, I started talking about rainbows. A rainbow is a place where peace and tumult meet; a storm and sunny weather. As I pointed out before, I feel that a rainbow symbolizes a transition, and I feel like I am going through one right now. This year's SUUSI reinforces this, and I saw a rainbow for real a couple of weeks later. So I am going to call SUUSI 2002, "Blessings" my Rainbow SUUSI. I hope to have the song completed soon. It shall be entitled "Dancing Under the Rainbow" - note under, rather than over, the rainbow.

Rainbows

On the way back from Rochester to Richmond on Aug 24, a thunderstorm passed us and went to the east. It was there in the east when the sun set in the west. This to me means Rainbow Warning. I looked all over the place for rainbows and found it as we were heading down I-95 south of Richmond. It got brighter as time went on, and produced some impressive scenes over the already futuristic appearance of the bridges of Va 895 over the James River. I took some pictures but they did not turn out well. I did get a good picture of the rainbow near a grocery store.

What do rainbows mean, anyway? The traditional Biblical story says that it is God's forgiveness after the 40-day flood that killed the rest of creation. I suspect this story had its origin in a huge flood sometime around 3000-5000 years ago. A collection of people rode out the storm and thanked the powers that be that they had no control over that they were finally safe. Of course with the sun shining and the storm still around, a rainbow would have shone; hence the symbolism. There is also the Wizard of Oz interpretation, that is, that birds could fly over it but I can't. And there is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; getting a lot of money is just as elusive as chasing down the end of the rainbow - if you try to find it, it moves further on.

The scientific explanation is that the setting sun shines on raindrops of a storm on the the other side of the sky. These raindrops refract the sun's rays much as a glass prism does, and splits the light into individual colors by wavelength. This means in order for a rainbow to form, both sunny skies and stormy weather must prevail. The rainbow separates the yin and yang of the weather; indeed, one side of the rainbow will be brighter than the other side. So to me rainbows represent a transition. It would be a good symbol for weddings, coming-of-age ceremonies, retirement parties, and so forth.