What I've Been Reading Instead of Cleaning My House

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Slow the flow, save H2O

We were going out to eat with my nephew, Vorquel (who's starting his freshman year at a nearby college), and I asked him if he noticed any differences between the incredibly arid state he just left and the very arid state he's now living in.

He mentioned that he thought it was odd how often people watered their grass.

Yes, isn't that strange? This is a desert people, not New England.

Of course, I was raised in another arid state where you get fined for watering your lawn or even washing your car.

Just to prove his point, yesterday I was taking my kids to school and the sprinklers were on at the playground. They had been left on ALL NIGHT. The yard duty lady said that the city runs them and they forget to turn them off. When I picked up Alice-Grace from Kindergarten at noon, they were STILL ON!

Oh, did I mention that it was also RAINING that day?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

broken sprinklers that water the SIDEWALK bring me the MOST joy!

GrittyPretty said...

or automatic sprinklers that water the street including the parked car with OPEN windows! joy!

Lois said...

SHILLIG -- maybe they're trying to get the sidewalk to grow?

GRITTY -- better yet if it's summer and the cold water hitting the hot car cracks the windshield!

rena said...

Here most people decorate with rocks inplace of a lawn. Now I just see a lawn as a big waste of water.

Geo said...

Do I get points for a brown lawn?

Rynell said...

But don't forget -- the police arrested that lady with the brown lawn.

There are all sorts of ridiculous here. ;)

Lois said...

RENA -- I see it as a big waste of space. Does anyone even use their front yard for anything? I mean, besides showing off how green your lawn is?

GEO -- ooh, double points.

RYNELL -- I forgot about that!

SuziQ said...

I don't understand front lawns, either. We never use ours. I like the semi-privacy of the backyard - where our lawn is brown and crunchy, but at least it's not out where it can offend. :)

I think it drives our neighbor crazy because besides rarely watering, we also don't cut it down nearly as short as he does his (I've wondered if this is a cultural thing - our old neighbors and all my parents' neighbors are the same way, and they're all the same nationality). Our lawn is shaggy. Know what? It requires less water that way! It's nice and green and I can't even tell you the last time we actually watered the front!

Lois said...

SUZIQ -- yeah, there's a guy in our neighborhood that I swear cuts his lawn with a pair of scissors.

Vorquel said...

That's Mormon Country for you, they try to appear all goody-goody and just end up wasting the 3rd most valuable resource in the world (after God and oxygen)

Lois said...

VORQUEL -- I thought the three most valuable were cats, dogs and rats. Oh, you said RESOURCES, not FLEA SOURCES!

Putz said...

so really liis how long have you been back...thi s si so exciting...ever since that poor woman in provo was TACKELED BY A CITY PROBVO Employee i have been talking about water and our decisions to even let our lawns go dry to conserve....so youare here to champion us and also that plot of city land in slc that was takenover by the city...their own land...but not to be managed by us simple flok...i love you are back

Lois said...

PUTZ -- good to be back.