All I really want to say about this day is this is a day that needs to be remembered. In a few years, I truly believe that this day should be a federal holiday and a day of remembrance. We lost too many people to regulate this day to just another red date on our calendar that doesn't get recognized. I'm glad of the services that are going on, and I was really touched to hear about all the memorials and shrines that have sprung up all over the city of New York. But I don't want to discuss the subject in my diary; the media is doing a wonderful job of covering all the events of remembrance that are going on. My house shall remember September 11th in its own way.
Gustav is a loser. Really, he is. And what kind of name is Gustav anyhow?! Wait a second, Gustav Holst wrote The Planets symphony; I suppose I should have some respect for one of my favorite composers.
But the Gustav that Mother Nature sent our way is truly a loser. Even after getting upgraded to a tropical storm (he had been a subtropical storm, which apparently gets formed differently from a tropical storm, so I don't see how the "tropical storm" designation is an upgrade), he wimps out and decides not to make landfall. Oh, the Outer Banks got a lot of wind and rain, and probably lost another few feet of beach, but come on, folks, we're in a drought!! We need the rain!!!
The damn thing should have come north.
Grr.
Speaking of drought conditions, our lovely governor who won my vote in the last election (couldn't be voting for the Republicans, now can I??) has now decreed that the entire state of Virginia is under water restrictions. Now this I don't mind. I figure the average American uses way too much water anyhow. But now people are angry because they have to conserve water. One lady who was interviewed by our local news said she doesn't understand why she can't just pay for the water she uses and be free to use as much as she wants as long as she pays for it. Ummm, lady, we don't have an unending supply of water. I wanted to tell her to set up her own desalination plant and suck all the water she wants from the Atlantic Ocean. People can be so ignorant at times.
And now Governor Warner says, "All y'all with private wells must also adhere to the water restrictions." Umm, Guv'ner, are you sure you mean "private" wells? As in, not regulated by the government because they are private? And private meaning, "not public," as in "not being able to be regulated by the government because they are private"??
So my mother couldn't report the drug deals and the speeding on the streets in her old neighborhood because they were private streets and not under the jurisdiction of the city's police department, but the governor can tell folks way the hell out in Pungo and Driver that they can't use their private wells?
Governor Warner needs to go back to grammar school and be taught the difference between public and private.
And of course, we, the locals, get punished for the excessive water use of the tourists. The water restrictions came at the end of August, when most of the tourists were gone anyhow. Coincidence? I doubt it. The money brought in by the tourists is more important than saving our resources for posterity's sake. This means that the tourists could come to Virginia Beach all summer, take hour-long showers if they so chose, and play on our lovely golf courses that still get watered because the needs of the wealthy and the tourists are far more important than conserving water.
What a world we live in.
Welcome to my soap box. :o)