Villagers With Pitchforks

The flaming torches were delayed in transit, sorry.

Name:
Location: Glendale, Arizona, U.S. Outlying Islands

Thursday, January 27, 2005

I Picked the Wrong Week to Stop Drinking

The Phoenix water crisis of the past two days (loosely translated: Excess sand in the water. Sand! Have you seen this part of Arizona lately? Duh!) is now over.

Good thing, too. I'm out of Scotch.

All over Phoenix, people will stop drinking bottled water because of turbidity and go back to drinking bottled water because the tap water, being full of tasty minerals, tastes really nasty.

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

The Water Is Fine (Just Don't Drink Any)

Phoenix has a bit of a water problem just now:
The 1.4 million residents of Phoenix were encouraged Tuesday to boil their tap water until at least noon Wednesday, and also to limit what water they do use.

City officials blamed a turbidity problem they discovered during testing Monday night: Muddy water due to recent storms was flowing into one of the city's two operating water treatment plants, reducing the output of that plant.

Two other water treatment plants are shut down due to routine maintenance, another is off line because of water damage, leaving only one of the city's five water treatment plants producing water at full capacity.
A water treatment plant is off-line due to water damage? Ummm...

Moving on:
Ken Kroski, a spokesman for the Phoenix Water Services Department, said turbidity has no health effects. However, it could interfere with water disinfection, provide a medium for bacterial growth, and indicate a presence of disease-causing organisms, he said.

City officials say that the water is not dangerous - and are merely recommending that it be boiled for precautionary reasons.

"Phoenix takes the safety of its residents as its utmost priority," Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said. "We are taking extra precautions because of all the sediments that came into the system because of the storm."

So far, tests have turned up no bacteria or microbes or anything else that could be considered dangerous to residents.

Nonetheless, officials say that residents should not use tap water to prepare foods, brush their teeth or in cold drinks. They are also asking that homeowners not water their lawns, do their laundry and limit their shower times.

City Manager Fairbanks asked that residents be patient, and not panic.

"The water department tests for 103 different items," Fairbanks said. "We have passed 102 of those tests. The one we failed was for particles."

"The water is not poisonous, and frankly, it's very unlikely that anyone would get sick," said Fairbanks, adding that he had had two big glasses of tap water this morning and was "not concerned for his health."

Nonetheless, city officials are asking that all schools turn off their water fountains, or post signs warning students not to drink from them.

Similar precautions were taken at Phoenix City Hall, where fountains were covered with tape and signs that said, "Do Not Use Tap Water. Do not Drink It or Use It for Coffee, Tea, etc."
Well, I'm confused.

I work in Phoenix, but I live in Glendale, which is on a different water supply.

And I tend to not drink unfiltered tap water anywhere in the Phoenix area, because it may be safe, but it tastes nasty.

I'll stick to drinking Guinness, and brushing my teeth with Budweiser.

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Inaugural Protest

Somehow, I got on the Republican National Committee's mailing list.

As you can probably deduce from the countdown clock at the top of this weblog, I'm not a big Republican supporter. In fact, I support no political party. I register from time to time as a Democrat or Libertarian to support specific candidates in the primaries. Theoretically, I could register as a Republican to support a given candidate, but in metro Phoenix, this has never been necessary.

Anyway: I've been getting these nifty pictures of Mr Bush - nifty as in "of very good technical quality"; I don't need any more pictures, thank you - along with postage-paid envelopes, for about a year now. I usually return the photos along with as much of their membership forms as possible (I remove any part that can be used to identify me) in their pre-paid envelopes. If the RNC wants to waste money sending me things, I'll gladly help them to waste a little more. Then I gloat about it, sometimes online.

Yesterday's mail brought me - alas, no picture. Just a membership card. A membership card! And a postage-paid envelope. I get to have a little more fun, and now I can call myself a card-carrying non-Republican.

Well, actually, a non-card-carrying non-Republican; I have too many cards in my wallet already. (I stopped carrying my wallet in my back pocket and my backaches went away. That's one fat wallet.) But you get the idea.

Friday, January 14, 2005

Typo du Jour

Headline from Google News:

ABC News Probe Lands on Saturn Moon; Sends Photos

ABC must be very proud...

Menu

Seen at the place I had breakfast today:
Our New Menu
  • Take it
  • Leave It


Friday, January 07, 2005

Oh, you fickle little elf-girls

The saga of Figwit.

- via Anita Rowland

Monday, January 03, 2005

I Am Not Making This Up Any More For A While

Dave Barry is taking a sabbatical from his column.

Fortunately for us, there's the AutoDave.

The blog continues, probably because his extensive, hard working, and not yet best selling research department (Judi Smith) isn't taking a sabbatical.

Oops

I forgot to do the geeky thing to bring in the New Year...

...Log on and watch Industrious Clock roll over.


Heck, we didn't even pop open the Martinelli's at midnight.


It Lives, Part 0

Happy New Year.

I'm about to blow away and re-install Windows, or more specifically, I'm going to run HP Recovery on my home system. Wish me luck.