Skip to main content

Rain. Rain Go Away.

Rain, Rain Go Away
by Jeff Jordan         




No news really but our weather prognosticators made it official. We had record rainfall in the month of September. Please notice the month isn't over yet. It isn't news because anyone living down here s well aware that it has been raining a lot. This week alone we were awakened most mornings by thunder and lightning followed by a downpour. 

Our problem is that the ground is so saturated that all of the rain is running off. Good for the lakes and rivers except they are running high on their banks already. Besides the flooding problems, numbers of trees have been toppled because of high winds and the inability of the over-saturated soil and shallow root structure to anchor the trees. 

In the case of the City of Milwaukee, the runoff caused one of our infrequent treatment plant's overflows. This means the sewer waste is pumped directly into Lake Michigan. You would think that we would be a bit distressed with this wet and gloomy state. However, we watch the evening news and see what is happening in the Bahamas and realize we really don't have any problems.

Speaking Of Island Nations With Problems: 

Someone once said that the reason the Irish fight amongst each other so much is to assure the battle involves a high-quality opponent.

The current situation in the United Kingdom called Brexit is spinning out of control. It revolves around an issue referred to as the "backstop".

Historically, Ireland resolved it's problem with civil warfare between the British loyalists and the opposition. The "troubles" were dealt with an agreement back in the nineties.  Under this agreement  the border between Northern and Southern Ireland is open. Brexit endangers this because it will create a closed trade border between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. To us, this may be confusing. But the reality is that the EU has to establish this trade barrier or it can't control the EU standards on imported goods. 

Believe it or not, the Harley you buy in the US is not the same as the one you buy in the EU. (Essentially the method of controlling emissions is different.) This just an example of the regulations that are imposed on British goods that would normally pass from Northern Ireland to Southern Ireland without question. However, given the exit of the UK from the EU. Northern Ireland could import non-complying goods and then redistribute them. It is also true for goods flowing from north to south. Mostly there is more concern for food products than motorcycles.

Since Boris Johnson, the current prime minister of the UK, is considered the British version of Donald Trump, you can expect a proposal for a wall to solve the problem.

The bigger fear, from the standpoint of the UK is that this could end up with Irish Independence from the crown and it's assumed that the next to go would be Scotland. Stay tuned. It's even more fun than our political problems.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ring The Bell

 It appears there is a tradition in the radiology department at Ascension Hospital that patients, upon completing their course of treatment, ring a bell. ( We know not for whom this bell tolls.) Ring the Bell with My Sweetheart Jeanne. Jeanne drove me to all but two of the appointments. Pam Frautchi took me to the other two. Today, after being zapped thirty-two times, I rang the bell. This begins a roughly one-month recovery period where the effects of the radiation abate and, I'm assured, a return to normalcy occurs. In my case, I anticipate more energy and greater awareness. Books, Books, & More Books I am simultaneously celebrating the end of the third year of volunteering for the All Saints Hunger Book Sale. Next week, we will wrap up the preparation for the sale and open our doors on August 3 for the public. I ran into this humourous but quite accurate cartoon on a T-Shirt that shows most of the volunteer's sentiments at this point. If you think the printed and bound p...
Post a Comment
Read more
One of my latest efforts. Sketch: The Lady Is Blue Gouache 9 X 12 Reporting: I enjoyed a pleasant evening with my friend Michelle Mooney. I took her out for dinner to celebrate her birthday and to thank her for the many first-rate haircuts she's given me. We were surprised at the number of people who dined alfresco in the balmy night air. Whatever we've done to please Mother Nature, she had deemed acceptable by giving us a shot of summer just when late fall weather was wrapping her fingers around our throat. If I have one complaint about the friendly confines of The County Claire, it's the noise level that makes it difficult to converse. The rumble is an acoustical problem with the customers speaking in normal conversational tones. This is without audible TV showing some game or background music selected by a dance DJ.  I know! We should have eaten outside, where the only noise is the occasional 14 bus snorting by.   Maybe It's Me Since my two soccer teams are not doing...
Post a Comment
Read more

It's time again.

It started in 2004 when we moved to our condo off Downer in Milwaukee. Then we mover to the Westside of Milwaukee when we rented from Ken Karr, the former landlord, now a current friend on Highland and 29th St. Then we moved to Mandeville Louisiana for a little less than a year. Returning to The Fox River Valley, we rented a home in Fox Crossing, formerly The Town of Menasha. When the tree fell on the roof, and the landlord felt no urgency to fix it, we moved to W. Commercial in Appleton. Here is a shocker. Are you sitting down? We are moving. No, I don't mean off the couch and out to the patio. There are too many damn mosquitoes for that to happen. No, we are packing our stuff, or at least the stuff we unpacked from the last move and moving to a home Maria purchased on Mason and Glendale in Appleton. Let me unpack that last sentence (pun planned for). We are moving at approximately the end of September to a house. The house has been in t...
1 comment
Read more