Monday Meanderings - 10.29.2018

I'm going to stop blogging about weather and such. It seems whatever I mention jumps up and bites us - like cold, and rain and Boil Water declarations.

Yes, A Boil Water mandate. Sunday night we went to bed hydrated and Monday morning we woke to find Austin plunged into widespread and prolonged mild inconvenience.

Here's a rough time line of events this week:

Monday, October 22 - 6:00am -- City holds press conference, announces immediate mandatory Boil Water declaration. Really? 6AM in the morning??

Monday, October 22 - 7:00am -- Social Media begins showing pictures of bare grocery store shelves; proclaims that there is no bottled water to be had. I take comfort that I filled the coffee pot last night, so my morning coffee is pre-ban, and therefore safe.

Monday, October 22 - 8:00am -- HEB says, "We got this. Give us a few hours to get the trucks on the way.

Monday, October 22 - 9:00am -- Next Door member rats out corner Texaco station charging $30 for 12-pack of bottled water,

Monday, October 22 - 10:00am -- Attorney General Up_for_Re-election files price gouging suit against corner Texaco. $20,000 fine. Per instance. Bring your receipts, folks.

Monday, October 22 - 11:00am -- We have boiled and set aside about 5 gallons of water. As has every other Austin Water utility customer.

Monday, October 22 - 11:15am -- Social Media: "Attention Aggies. You need to let the water COOL before you drink it!"

Monday, October 22 - 11:30am -- Social Media: Most Starbucks are closing. "Sorry, can't deal with this."

Monday, October 22 - 12:00pm --  Chuy's: "Of course we are open. We know how to boil water. You want queso to go with that burrito?"

Monday, October 22 - 4:00pm -- City of Austin: "Stop! You are using too much water! We can't keep up!" Well, duh! Every water customer just drew out about 5 extra gallons of water! What did you think was going to happen?

Tuesday, October 23 - 9:00am -- City of Austin: Press briefing explains that problem is "that our water source has had millions of gallons of silt and debris-laden water dumped into it from upstream, and the treatment plants are struggling with water that is 400% 'dirtier' than usual and falling way behind." No indication that water is actually not safe to drink. "Matter of overabundant caution."

Tuesday, October 23 - 9:00am -- HEB: "Y'all need to come get this water. These pallets are in our way."

Tuesday, October 23 - 12:00pm -- City of Pflugerville: "Hey, we don't have a water problem and ALL our restaurants are open."

Tuesday, October 23 - 3:00pm -- LCRA spokesperson: "This may last 'till Halloween."

Tuesday, October 23 - 3:01pm -- Mayor Up_for_Re-election: "No, no. This is only going to last a handful of days."

Tuesday, October 23 - 3:02pm -- Social Media: "How many is a handful?"

Tuesday, October 23 - 3:03pm -- City Water Chief: "Uh, not so fast, Mayor Up_for_Re-election."

Tuesday, October 23 - 4:00pm -- Water Chief: "Okay, we are now treating water faster than we are using it." Mayor did not attend briefing.

Wednesday, October 24 - 9:00am -- Ross' Cafe, our Wednesday breakfast stop: All good except for ice maker. Your choice if you want ice or not. Most restaurants and cafes are business as usual, just selling canned drinks and serving everything as take-out. No dish-washing.

Wednesday, October 24 - 4:00pm -- Press briefing: "No bacterial problem with water, but doesn't pass state 'turbidity' standard. Required by law to declare Boil Water."  Mayor nowhere in sight.

Thursday, October 25 - 9:00am -- City of Austin: Announces various locations to obtain free water.

 Thursday, October 25 - 9:30am -- Social Media: Traffic jams at all free water locations.

Thursday, October 25 - 10:00am -- HEB: "Y'all - we're only charging 79 cents a gallon for water! You'll spend more idling your car in line. Seriously."

Thursday, October 25 - 12:00pm -- White House: "It's the Democrat's fault."

Thursday, October 25 - 2:00pm -- White House: "It's the Media's fault."

Thursday, October 25 - 2:30pm --  Mayor Up_for_Re-election: Signed a disaster declaration, allowing the city to request reimbursement for expenses related to weather emergencies.

Thursday, October 25 - throughout the day -- Social Media, Next Door members weigh in:
     "Don't forget your pets. Be sure you use boiled water for your dog."
     "Are you kidding? My dog drinks out of the toilet!"
     "OMG! I forgot and brushed my teeth with tap water! What to do?"
     "Rinse your mouth with some Purell."
     "Everybody should move to Manor."
     "Can't. Have to wash dishes before I can sell my house."
     "Can you get giardia geeardia jiardia stomach bug
            from drinking non-boiled water?

Friday, October 26 - 10:00am -- Statesman: Blame Game begins. Mayor Up_for_Re-election and City Council passes resolution requiring complete and thorough investigation of Austin's BoilWaterGate crisis.

Friday, October 26 - 10:30am -- Water Chief responds to City Council: "Have you looked out the front door of City Hall at the color of the water in the river? #NotOurFault

Friday, October 26 - 10:30am -- Politicos who voted for 4th water treatment plant 2 years ago: "See! We told you that we needed that plant!"

Friday, October 26 - 10:32am -- Politicos who voted against 4th water treatment plant 2 years ago: "See! We told you that that plant was a waste of money!"

Friday, October 26 - 2:30pm --  Water Chief: "Sunday afternoon/evening is ‘operating target’ for lifting boil-water order."

Friday, October 26 - 3:00pm -- White House: "Calling out National Guard."

Saturday, October 27 - throughout the day -- Social Media: Ho hum.

Sunday, October 28 - 3:30pm -- City of Austin: "Crisis is over! Drink up!"

Sunday, October 28 - 4:00pm --Various local vendors: "I Survived BoilWaterGate! tee shirts and coffee mugs now on sale. Get yours while supplies last."

Monday Meanderings - 10.22.2018

I may have miss-spoken about Fall not showing up. Sometime between the time I wrote last week's blog and the time I got up on Monday morning, someone turned on the cold. You may have seen the memes that pointed out that the temperature range in Texas was low 30's in the Panhandle and mid-90's in the Valley. On the same day. Austin, in the middle, was 44 degrees most of last Monday.

And then it started raining.

Yesterday was a beautiful day, a much-needed respite from the rain, but floodgates are open all up and down the Highland Lakes, dumping millions of gallons of water hourly - which must eventually pass through Austin. And the rains will resume this week.

Interestingly, an over-abundance of water often creates problems for city municipal water delivery. A number of cities along the flooded areas have been having issues getting safe water to users. Boil notices and shortages are common, and even though Lake Travis - where Austin gets its drinking water - is at 147% of capacity, Austin Water has issued urgent pleas to curtail usage. All the silt and debris in the lake is severely taxing the filtration process, it seems

On the bright side, the current joke is that Cruise Lines are now offering departures from Port Austin. Excursions include Bald Eagle viewing along the Llano River.

But still no fallen pecans to speak of, though that doesn't deter the little Vietnamese Lady. She comes by daily to check. It has motivated us to be properly dressed of a morning before opening the blinds. She really likes to prowl along the drip-line in the front flower bed, where the pecans that roll off the roof land. Surprise!

Vui lòng đi chỗ khác.

Monday Meanderings - 10.15.2018

motivation

noun

mo·ti·va·tion | \ˌmō-tə-ˈvā-shən\

Definition of motivation 

1 : the act or process of motivating. Some bloggers need motivation to help them write a post.

Okay, I made up that part about bloggers. Merriam-Webster had a more general definition, but mine fits the situation better. I need some motivation - and good material - to get back in the blogging groove. To be fair, there have been 1,242 posts in this blog so far. This is number 1,243, and in the 11 years of this blog's existence, I have written down almost everything I know, and most things that I have done (there are some notable exceptions and that's all I have to say about that).

And I have been busy. I have been trying to wrap up the marathon audio recording project known as "the (expletive deleted) Alaska book." It came in at 14 hours and 40 minutes of narration. I don't keep records of how much time I spend producing a book; industry guidelines suggest a 6-to-1 ratio (6 hours work for every finished hour - or in this case, about 88 hours) is a good goal. Hah! I spent more than 88 hours trying to find the pronunciation of words like "promyshleniki" and "Revillagigedo" and "Kwakwaka’wakw." For the record, it's pronounced  "kwalk-walk-yah-walk."

Interesting story about the pronunciations. Early on I had raised a flag for help with the publisher. My contact finally got me in touch with the author, and I sent him a long list of words I could not find. After some prodding, he did respond, and said, "I don't have a clue. I never heard them pronounced. I just copied them out of the source material."

But this past week I clicked on the "I Am Done" button and put the finished product in the publisher's hands. Barring major problems, it should be available for sale in a few weeks.

It's trying to be Fall here - but not very hard. True, there are no more really, really hot days, but it hasn't exactly cooled down, either. There's a "cold" front coming this week that may make a difference. Maybe that will also shake some pecans loose. The trees are loaded, but very few nuts are actually making it to the ground, and those that do are much smaller in size than normal.

That hasn't stopped the little old Vietnamese lady; she checks regularly, and thanks to our motion-sensing doorbell, we know every time she comes around. She's hard to run off, so if I want some pecans, I'm going to have to be diligent. Assuming they ever fall out of the trees. At least no limbs have broken off (yet) this year.