Bundling Up in December

The December weather patterns are now upon us in Vancouver, Washington.  The mid-morning temperature today in Vancouver is 40F, with light intermittent rain.  

It was also cold and raining in December to February in Red Bluff, California.  

December     Quotes, Poems, Sayings, Lore, Gardening Chores

We tried to reduce electrical and propane bills in Red Bluff, and electrical bills in Vancouver, by keeping the indoor temperature low.  We don't heat much at night.  

We dress accordingly to stay comfortable indoors.  Layered clothing, hat, scarf, and sometimes gloves are often used indoors.    

When reading, I bundle up with blankets or afghans.  

Here I am in 2012, in my study, bundled up in December.

Gardening and Environmental Awareness

 "Odd as I am sure it will appear to some, I can think of no better form of personal involvement in the cure of the environment than that of gardening.  A person who is growing a garden, if he is growing it organically, is improving a piece of the world.  He is producing something to eat, which makes him somewhat independent of the grocery business, but he is also enlarging, for himself, the meaning of food and the pleasure of eating.  The food he grows will be fresher, more nutritious, less contaminated by poisons and preservatives and dyes that what he can buy in a store.  He is reducing the trash problem; a garden is not a disposable container, and it will digest and reuse its own wastes.  If he enjoys working in his garden, then he is less dependent on an automobile or merchant for his pleasure.  He is involving himself directly in the work of feeding people. 

A person who undertakes to grow a garden at home, by practices that will preserve rather than exploit the economy of the soil, has set his mind decisively against what is wrong with us.  He is helping himself in a way that dignifies him and that is rich in meaning and pleasure.  But he is doing something else that is more important: he is making vital contact with the soil and the weather on which his life depends.  He will no longer look upon rain as a traffic impediment, or upon the sun as a holiday decoration.  And his sense of humanity's dependence on the world will have grown precise enough, one would hope, to be politically clarifying and useful."
-  Wendell Berry, "The World-Ending Fire", p. 55

Donald Trump's Needs More Water for His Hair

 

Mr. Trump was complaining in August 2020 about shower head and toilet water conservation measures.  President George Bush sensibly encouraged water conservation legislation back in 1992. 

“People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once,” Trump told a meeting of small business leaders at the White House.  He groused about lower-flow shower-heads because "You turn on the shower — if you're like me, you can't wash your beautiful hair properly."  

This is another example of Mr. Trump’s ignorance of the serious water shortages in the West, his negative attacks on environment conservation and the EPA, and his pathetic vanity.  

Sounds to me like a spoiled rich man whining about some trivial inconvenience.  He does not want to cooperate with sensible water conservation measures needed in California, Nevada, and Arizona.  He thinks real life is just playing at his private golf course in Florida, where it rains a lot.   

Does Mr. Trump really know anyone who needs to flush their toilet 10 to 15 times?  We had low-flow toilets for 20 years in Red Bluff, CA - one flush was always enough.  

Probably, Mr. Trump is so full of CRAP that HE needs to flush his toilet 10 to 15 times!