Tag: drought
Dry and true
So there has been rain in the Tampa Bay area the last few days, yay rain…
…Whoopty friggin’ do.
Anyone in Pinellas County that wants to think we’re in the clear with drought conditions need only look at the official Pinellas county rain gauge on their web site. It feels sick and cruel that the tally through today (July 2nd) is 10.59 inches of rain for the year.
2007 is half way finished and we’re only about one fifth of the way to the average rainfall total (Clearwater, Florida’s average yearly rainfall total is 49 inches according to Florida Living Network. The St. Pete Chamber of Commerce lists the city of St. Petersburg’s annual rainfall total at 48+ Inches).
We haven’t hit the Fourth of July yet, nor the peak of the hurricane season (two sub-tropical storms and only a bit of rain from both) and I’m fearing how our water outlook will come November.
When in "Drought" — fill your pool!
I’ve been watching and paying close attention to the Skypoint Condo construction at 777 Ashley Drive in downtown Tampa since they broke ground in June of 2005. The first inhabitants of the building are due to start arriving early in June as units begin closing proceedings.
And with the construction crew finalizing details in and around the tower, I must voice a complaint.
Like I said, I’ve been following Skypoint closely since 2005… Usually by way of conversation on Skyscraper City or web cams provided by TECO (now defunct) and Ox Blue. With the Ox Blue cam specifically, anyone can view the progress on Skypoint from July 2005 until current.
What you can also find is photographic proof of the Skypoint-resident-only pool being drained and re-filled three times within the last month while Tampa and much of Florida are in severe drought conditions. I don’t think I need explain how many thousands of gallons it takes to fill a pool or emphasis the waste.
Check it for yourself — go to their flash webcam site and jump to April 18th (use the calendar on the left hand side that pops up) — the day of the first filling. The pool stays full until May 3rd when it’s drained during the course of day. Five days later, on May 8th, the pool is refilled again and then abruptly drained for the second time on May 14th. The third filling took place just this Monday (May 20th) and it is still full as of May 23.
Three fillings in a pool that no one has yet used, in a building where no one yet lives. I wonder if the city of Tampa even considers that a violation, seeing that they are suggesting you tattle on neighbors using too much water.
The Myth of Rain
It is SO FRIGGIN’ HOT!
September in Tampa Bay is supposed to be just like August, or July, or June — hot, humid, and wet… The wetness is supposed to come from not only tropical showers but the chance of a tropical system (Tropical Storm or Hurricane) coming through the area. On average, Tampa Bay gets almost 3 and a half inches of rain in September.
In 2005? We’ve gotten two hundreths of an inch of rain.
Things are drying and dying out at an incredible rate and you have to wonder just when we’re goign to go back to severe drough warnings and conservation in the area…. We’ve grown since the early and mid 1990’s when we were last stuck in a drought and water consumption must be at an all time high…
The reason it’s so dry and hot? Thank both Hurriance Katrina and Hurricane Ophelia. Katrina sapped the moisture in the region as she headed for Louisiana and then Ophelia formed and not only absorbed moisture but blew dry winds from the Carolinas right over Florida…
With that wind pattern — all we have is heat and haze… It’s disgusting, it’s painful and there is no end in sight despite Tropical Storm Rita’s projected forray across the Strait of Florida.
I’m upset I am heading to Los Angeles early next month right now — I’ll be going rom dry and hot to dry and cooler… I’d like MOIST. I’d like RAIN… I’d like WET…
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When all I've got is hurt…
I’m happy for Bill, he’s starting to have something happening after a long long drought. Go Bill
I’m…. just… not really capable of saying much more.
Choices
Choices are what defines our life and is an integral part of what drives us. Other’s choices have helped define you as a human being and helped form your habits. Your own choices have defined you up until this point in life – where you are reading this journal entry on a web site you chose to go to and you will choose if you will read beyond the end of this paragraph or if you will switch to a different web site on the World Wide Web (hell, you might have already).
Some choices bring you to joy and other choices bring you regret. Other’s choices can bring you to joy, or might make you regret that you dealt with them… Or perchance they will make you want to encourage them to make a better decision, a more thoughtful choice because the particular choice they are currently using going to end up hurting them.
You could look back at a relationship and say “Hey, it’s his / her loss” over the fact they chose another course over choosing you but at the same time – you’re most likely pinning in one way or another becasue you don’t want them to lose out on you, or in general.
It’s all about choices. Sometimes it’s not your own choice that forces you to live life in solitude but the choices of others — the choices they made to be part of the in crowd and how you wouldn’t be good for their image, or the choice you made to not associate yourself with this-or-that type of person because of some quality they have about them.
You’ll chose what you have to eat tonight, and what time you’ll go to bed — stay up and watch Letterman or maybe go to bed early to get a jump start on the new day? You’ll chose whether to sit back in your chair as you read this or shift side to side, or put your feet up on your desk while you read.
Choices, choices….
Do I take the blue pill or do I swallow the red? Do I make another movie quote here about a famous choice or do I go on with my ramble?
Some choices are made by fate, or by God or by whatever higher power is overseeing our lives. Disease, famine, drought, death, life – so it goes without saying that we have only so much we can control. Sometimes we just don’t want to control, sometimes we think control is an illusion… And then sometimes you realize your choices up until this moment made control look like an illusion, and you can’t get yourself back in control.
We’re all on the edge of sanity and sobriety in our lives and the choices we make put us on either side of that edge. Steven Tyler said it best when he sang, We can tell’em no, or we can let it go… but I’d rather leave it hanging on which is just leaving things flextible and open to decision at another time… It’s a choice I once found comfort in… Yet that was a time in the past, back in the days of high school and now I find myself making decisions because there is no more care free living. Not just that but leaving things wavering — for or against? Yes or no? Do or don’t? — often makes things worse than just getting them out of the way.
I’m surrounded by choices… They chide me, are snide to me, delight me and damn me all in the matter of a moment.
Choices… For you, for me, for society, for the world… Choices.
