W…What? #AtoZChallenge

Now we have W…did you ever wonder why it’s called double U when actually it’s V joined together in good times and bad. No? Well, okay, maybe I am weird.

W begins some interesting words. Wisteria…love it, can’t grow it here. Wand, Wizard, Witch…Why do so many fantasy/magic words start with W? Wisconsin, where my father was born. Wikipedia, the resource we love to hate. Winsome, woeful…long list!

I knew from the start W would offer an opportunity to talk about

WATER.

And the lack thereof in way too many parts of the world. We worry about our bottled water imported from secret springs halfway around the world while those in other places walk. Bottled water in general…really? Major corporations decide they can blithely bottle up the water from California aquifers and sell it, adding to pollution (how many people actually bother to recycle those bottles?) and destroying that aquifer.

Around 2010 our well, always delicate, decided not to bring any  more water to the surface..put simply it went dry. We were able to cobbage together a solution: put one of the smaller collection barrels on a small trailer, and use that to haul water from one of the local ranches. They do a rousing business selling water, I only hope their well stays good. And yes, we collect every possible drop of rain/snow/frost water that hits any of our roofs. It’s why I don’t worry quite so much about the micro climate I’m trying to develop

In 2013 I joined an International group of authors contributing to an anthology about…water. The book is free, with a request for donations to a fund for clean water around the world. OF WORDS AND WATER was written to benefit Water Aid (click on the book cover for that link…I learned how to do this recently and wanted to show off!) My contribution is a tip of the hat to Star Trek…Prime Directive.

If you look through that website you’ll see pictures that are not so pretty of people struggling to survive, making an incredible effort to obtain at least the minimum needed water, hopefully clean.

They are in IN NEPAL NOW and are sharing statistics we need to understand about the situation there concerning Water and Sanitation, so critical to life and health. Even as the aftershocks continue, some things can’t wait.

I don’t mean this to be a downer story but if it takes some depression to wake us up to this critical issue, then I’ll stash the humor for a while.

Take care. And while you think about Water, think about our Wounded Warriors. I do pretty much constantly