Water, Water–Mine

I saw an article yesterday that explored the relationship of illness to lack of fresh water. I’ve been lucky. I grew up in New York, which has some of the best public water anywhere in the world. Until climate change begins to leech ocean water into the south Florida aquifers, the water down here is excellent. Having written the last two blogs about water issues, large and small, I had to give some thought to things I can do with my water as “one small step…” in making sure people here and elsewhere will have more water that can be purified.

Here are my thoughts:

*Saving: Unless their is cause, I shave every other day now. I let the water run at the lowest output possible to do what I need done. When I am actually shaving I turn the water off so that it is not running purposely.

has he turned off the water

Watering the grass: I don’t have to do this anymore, but I am going to act on something that has bothered me for years. Ever ride down a street that has a median in the pouring rain? County and city sprinklers are on timers so if it happens to be raining the water supply is wasted. Same in my gated community. I am going to advocate in all my jurisdictions for the replacement of the timing mechanisms with ones that have water gauges. Once the gauge has a certain amount of water in it the system automatically shuts off. Brilliant.

rain or shine

Taking a shower: This one is tough for Americans because by and large we get in the shower, turn on the water, let it warm up, and then leave it on for the during. When my water heater goes, and it will, I will replace it with a waterless heater. While this is a tradeoff because they use more electricity, the water is always warm and there is no waster waiting for it to get that way. I’m going to wet myself top and bottom and then turn off the shower while I wash myself. On it goes for the rise. Same deal for a shampoo. We need to take a page from the Israeli conservation book and make the five minutes shower standard. My niece and my daughter are in the shower long enough to wash down an elephant.

Restaurants: Unless I am going to drink it, I won’t order water. I almost never finish a glass of water so I will begin to ask for it in a 6 oz glass instead of 8.

Doing the dishes: Hear ye! Hear ! The dishwasher uses less water than hand washing. Read the directions. Load it correctly and don’t use cheap soap. The dishwasher will run more efficiently. Finally, run the dishwasher at night and turn off the heat cycle. By morning the heat inside the machine will dry your dishes without any assist.

a water saver

Doing the dishes by hand: Some people don’t have dishwashers. Some cook and serve on things that are not dishwasher safe. There are items that are too big to go in some dishwashers. There are some things people feel are too delicate for the dishwasher, even if they have a delicate wash cycle. All those things get washed by hand. We have some of all that stuff. What are we going to do?

We now have a soft sink mat. Since I do the dishes, I will treat them like I am going to treat my body in the shower. First they’ll get a rinsing. Then, a soaping with the water turned off. Then another rinsing. I’m not doing them one at a time and putting them on the dishrack as I used to with the water running waiting for me to do the next item. un uh!

Thinking: Lastly, I will keep thinking, I will keep noticing things that I do, could do, didn’t realize I needed to do to save water. And I will feel good about myself–at least from my perspective.

sometimes this is all it takes

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Yet another troubling issue for these oh so troubling times. But it is what it is. It was just announced by the CDC that six months after the second shot we have bare minimum protection. With a booster we have three months of 75% protection. Between month 3 and month 6 is drops to 35%! Guess what you should be thinking about doing. Remember if you need a last minute gift to give someone some smiles, or if you’re Greek Orthodox and can wait ’til the last days of madness are over, Give a though to, “The War of the Itchy Balls and Other Notes From Brooklyn” and “George Washington DIdn’t Sleep Here.” Have safe, healthy, happy holidays.