Eating one's words
Bensblurb # 560 July 15, 2010
ITEM: "Jul 14, 2010 ... A drought watch has been issued for Virginia as a long hot, dry spell has stunted crops, heightened the threat of wildfires and..."--Business Week
Distasteful: Eating one’s words
Pass the Tums, please. For years in this space, I have been totally chamber of commerce-y in bragging about Stafford’s mild climate. Well, it was, but now isn’t. A great number of plus-90 and 100-degree days, plus our famous humidity, have totally boiled my enthusiasm. Bad enough, it had already been damaged last winter by our huge snowstorms.
Nothing severe since 1996, I had crowed earlier about our string of mild winters.
Now our long hot summer drags on and August’s dog days haven’t even arrived yet. My lawn out front, formerly green, then brown, is now absent as drought again rains, er, reigns.
(A horticultural aside about area lawns...They always look tacky about this time of year, except for golf greens of course.)
And how about all that stuff I have written, disparaging my county’s feeble attempts at voluntary rationing of temporarily scarce water reserves? Surely it was all just brouhaha, considering our location physically, in that we enjoy running water (everlasting?) on three sides of our fortunate county.
And global warming? What a ripe target for ridicule. Except...Maybe those scientists believing we’re the cause of it all may be on to something after all. According to NOAA, the January through May period this year was globally the hottest on record, with the average temperature in May nearly one degree above the 20th century’s May average. We helped.
Regardless, I get consolation in reading that our hardy old earth has been both hotter and colder in our distant past. But then I look up at July’s merciless sun, and plea that it lose all its spots and thus give us relief from its withering glare. Similarly I wish that all the hot air arising from Washington, D.C. would hurry up and take the customary August vacation, via congressional recess.
I had planted a dozen new azaleas out front this spring, and with the onset of nice rains had confidently predicted their hardiness to one and all. At last furtive glance, they all looked stressed and some were on life support---presuming county watering restrictions aren’t imposed.
For newcomers still getting used to Stafford’s predilections, especially the drought edicts, be informed they can sprout at the drop of a hat, or rather the missing drop of a passing storm that had spent itself someplace else like Culpeper. Thus will our long hot summer persist.
I wish the county would hurry up and issue another water-restriction memo. That’s always worked in recent summers (like in 2007) to end our previous bad droughts.
To end on a cheerful note, I hope “long” won’t also be descriptive of our recession for much longer. Which reminds me: Before leaving the White House during the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover pushed through a big tax increase. Likewise, we’re similarly liable to remember Obama for also pushing through another whopper (by ending the Bush tax cuts next New Year’s Day) and getting a similar result, some fear, as Hoover’s: a prolonged financial agony.
Let’s pray otherwise. And also for a few good gully-washing drought breakers.
Ben Blankenship is an Aquia Harbour resident and career journalist. Reach him at Benblanken@aol.com
ITEM: "Jul 14, 2010 ... A drought watch has been issued for Virginia as a long hot, dry spell has stunted crops, heightened the threat of wildfires and..."--Business Week
Distasteful: Eating one’s words
Pass the Tums, please. For years in this space, I have been totally chamber of commerce-y in bragging about Stafford’s mild climate. Well, it was, but now isn’t. A great number of plus-90 and 100-degree days, plus our famous humidity, have totally boiled my enthusiasm. Bad enough, it had already been damaged last winter by our huge snowstorms.
Nothing severe since 1996, I had crowed earlier about our string of mild winters.
Now our long hot summer drags on and August’s dog days haven’t even arrived yet. My lawn out front, formerly green, then brown, is now absent as drought again rains, er, reigns.
(A horticultural aside about area lawns...They always look tacky about this time of year, except for golf greens of course.)
And how about all that stuff I have written, disparaging my county’s feeble attempts at voluntary rationing of temporarily scarce water reserves? Surely it was all just brouhaha, considering our location physically, in that we enjoy running water (everlasting?) on three sides of our fortunate county.
And global warming? What a ripe target for ridicule. Except...Maybe those scientists believing we’re the cause of it all may be on to something after all. According to NOAA, the January through May period this year was globally the hottest on record, with the average temperature in May nearly one degree above the 20th century’s May average. We helped.
Regardless, I get consolation in reading that our hardy old earth has been both hotter and colder in our distant past. But then I look up at July’s merciless sun, and plea that it lose all its spots and thus give us relief from its withering glare. Similarly I wish that all the hot air arising from Washington, D.C. would hurry up and take the customary August vacation, via congressional recess.
I had planted a dozen new azaleas out front this spring, and with the onset of nice rains had confidently predicted their hardiness to one and all. At last furtive glance, they all looked stressed and some were on life support---presuming county watering restrictions aren’t imposed.
For newcomers still getting used to Stafford’s predilections, especially the drought edicts, be informed they can sprout at the drop of a hat, or rather the missing drop of a passing storm that had spent itself someplace else like Culpeper. Thus will our long hot summer persist.
I wish the county would hurry up and issue another water-restriction memo. That’s always worked in recent summers (like in 2007) to end our previous bad droughts.
To end on a cheerful note, I hope “long” won’t also be descriptive of our recession for much longer. Which reminds me: Before leaving the White House during the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover pushed through a big tax increase. Likewise, we’re similarly liable to remember Obama for also pushing through another whopper (by ending the Bush tax cuts next New Year’s Day) and getting a similar result, some fear, as Hoover’s: a prolonged financial agony.
Let’s pray otherwise. And also for a few good gully-washing drought breakers.
Ben Blankenship is an Aquia Harbour resident and career journalist. Reach him at Benblanken@aol.com
posted by Ben Blankenship at
4:57 PM
