Weather and Water

Greetings and salutations.  How goes it in this time of lying and ring kissing of the orange ectoplasm?  His perfidy really knows no bounds.  Yesterday he put out a message that the entire voter database in Maricopa county had been deleted.  That did not happen, and the Maricopa county recorder, Stephen Richer, called him unhinged - because he is.

However, there are more important discussion topics, namely the weather.  Tucson hit 100 degrees May 13.  Last year it happened in April, along with 2020 hitting a record for consecutive days over 108F.  Additionally, the people who monitor the water are sounding the alarms as the aquifer is being depleted and the water from the Central Arizona Project is also under pressure.  Meanwhile, the farmers are drilling new wells and growing cows and alfalfa on land owned by Saudi Arabia.  We're sending water to the middle east in the form of agricultural products.  This troubles me some.  The WAPO had an article about the fading La Nina weather pattern and its depression of rain in California and here.  Knowing all of these things one wonders if one should get out of Dodge.  See the reddest area?  We live there.

The water issues are not just in Arizona.  "In what is shaping up to be the worst water crisis in generations, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it will not release water this season into the main canal that feeds the bulk of the massive Klamath Reclamation Project, marking a first for the 114-year-old irrigation system. The agency announced last month that irrigators would get dramatically less water than usual, but a worsening drought picture means water will be completely shut off instead." Water has also been cut off to the Coho salmon runs this year.  There will be no fish spawning, they're pretty much all dead. An article is here, just click on "continue without supporting" and you can read it.

WAPO also had an article about a new old person development being built on Kent Island in Maryland. They have a most excellent web site touting the wonders of their new facilities.  It looked kind of good, we could live there.  Winters there are cold, but not like the northern tier.  It could work, we'd be near stuff to go see and do.  Then we read the comments on the WAPO article.  Due to rising sea levels, Kent Island is experiencing salt water intrusion.  There is one bridge on and off the island, which is a major tourist destination in the summer.  If there is an accident on the bridge, you're stuck.  We decided nah.  I did leave a comment thanking the other commenters for the information and saving us a trip back east. 

This morning was noisy.  First we had an Air Rescue helicopter circling the area for almost an hour.

 He left and was replaced by a Sheriff's helicopter, who was flying very low.

Then this guy drove down the street.  Oddly enough, there was only the one vehicle, usually there are multiples.  We never heard any sirens.

So, it's a mystery who they were looking for.  It would be nice if they would do a text blast to explain to the locals what they are doing, but apparently we do not have a need to know.

Yesterday we did home organization.  For several months, we've had a box mushrooms come in (a wide box) spanning the arms of a foldable chair.  It held stuff we bought at Costco, since we haven't been in a Target for a year.  Quantities are large at Costco, very large.  With limited storage, most of it lived on the chair in the garage and was a total eyesore.  Ta-da!  New shelving.  If you need stand alone storage shelves, Amazon is not the place to buy.  Go to a restaurant supply store, much better.  Easy to assemble, and very sturdy.

I have a turkey roaster and a La Creuset dutch oven on the bottom shelf, neither of which I use, but either can't be or would cost too much to replace.  Their departure allowed us to get the Instant Pot off that kitchen counter and out of sight.  Domestic life is better.

This article has stuck with me for its total weirdness and awfulness.  The short version is a person died in the apartment above a young woman's apartment.  He was not found for some time, decomposed and fluids came through her ceiling, landing on the blades of ceiling fan that was in use.  Everything she had in that room is ruined, but the apartment's management has taken the position that it's her problem and not theirs.  So no help with clean up or painting.  This really strikes me a petty and cruel.  The full story is here if you're interested.  If nothing else, it's an argument for renter's insurance.

That's what's shaking here in the hot, windy, Old Pueblo.