Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Rationing Water and Rice

EDIT: (Thurs. 10:42 AM) Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide. Our city has now stated the rationing will be in effect until October.
We just received word from our city that we are in a drought and can no longer wash our cars at our houses, can only water the grass on Saturday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and cannot wash off our sidewalks, houses, driveways, or windows. Are any of you fellow Californians living in communities where the water is rationed? Guess we are going to have brown yards because this heat requires more than three times a week watering to keep the grass green. We already have meters on our water and must pay additional fees for using more than the basic amount of water. I hope this doesn't last long. I don't like looking at brown grass. Since the price of gas has risen so high, so have all the groceries brought by trucks to the stores. Many people have started their own gardens to save money and now rationing water will affect their gardens, too.

A member of our congregation went to buy 25 pounds of rice and there were not any 25 pound bags. So, this person got three 10 pound bags and took to the register. It took an act of God and congress to get the store to sell them the three bags of rice. The manager finally gave in and allowed the purchase but said there is a shortage of rice and they are rationing it.

What is going on???

14 comments:

  1. Rationing water....that I have heard of since we have that here in NV and have had it for a few years now. Odd addresses water one day, even another day, and business another day... No watering things that don't grow... Stupid.... Kinda. Why would one water if it aint gonna grow? But, then ya can't wash it off when the neighborhood kids come and make it dirty with all their sidewalk chalk? And as for the rice? well, I don't know about that. I just hope they don't do that at wal-mart!
    sonia

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  2. Jana
    They can ration most everything now, but they still can't ration God. We have much to be thankful for.

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  3. They can ration almost every thing, but they still can't ration God. We have soo much to be thankful for.

    Virginia Clark

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  4. Sorry if I sent this comment a half dozen times. I was playing with a new id and wasn't sure if it went through. My apologies, please delete them.
    Virginia Clark

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  5. We aren't having that in the Houston area but prices on more than fuel are increasing. My sister is a missionary to Zimbabwe. Sounds like you don't live too far from there!

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  6. Water conservation (rationing) has been around for years. I remember conserving in the late 1980s in Fresno - three scheduled days per week during certain times of the day, and no car washing, etc.

    I worked for water utilities in both Marin County and San Francisco. Marin had a strict rationing with a harsh tier level that definitely encouraged conservation in the 1980s and continued the tier system in the 90s. San Francisco Public Utilities set in place a tiered system that encouraged less use also. The tier level was definitely a penalty and made people aware of their usage. California water utilities were warned years ago by the State Regional Water Board to educate their communities as to the need to conserve. Many never did, and we are seeing the result now - plus it doesn't help that we haven't had the rain we normally do.

    BTW our water district on the Central Coast just said we are running out of water and have been placed on a tiered system.

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  7. Sonia - We had water rationing several years ago, but our water supplies have seemed fine the past couple years. This time of rationing caught us by surprise.

    Virginia - Amen! They can't ration God nor His power and might. Your comment did not post several times. You did just fine. :)

    Tracie - it seems America is becoming more third world and third world countries are getting better. Something is wrong with this picture.

    Karen - I think we are going to have to pray for rain. LOL We haven't had rationing in years, but we are at it again.

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  8. As soon as I read this post I called up my dad! haha He was like "How did you hear this?? I barely heard the voicemail on our answering machine 10min ago!" ;) He mentioned its supposed to last til Oct.

    Regardless, as a "Community and Regional Development" major things like this always catch my attention. My mind starts spinning--I wonder how this will affect children in schools? I wonder what the city has planned for a long term goal? I wonder how long it will take before people actually start implementing the notice?

    etc. etc. etc.

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  9. Carissa - It does generate many questions. Hopefully, we will get some good rains this fall and help get us out of drought. It must be really bad for farmers if they are restricting households.

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  10. There has been and is water rationing in NC for a year or so. We don't have it in Winston-Salem, but nearing High Point and Greensboro do.

    As to the rice, Sam's Club started limiting the number of large bags of Basmati rice that a person could buy a couple of months ago. I hadn't heard more about it until now.

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  11. What is going on?
    One, far too many of us have forget that this wonderful valley in which we live is, really a desert. One of those places where little rain falls! By the use of this ditches called canals we have, made the desert to bloom. So in these years when the desert wins, we are almost forced to try and get better us of that wonderful moisture, we call water. Now a personal opinion, I would prefer to have some inconvenience over my use of water, and the farmer gets more water. You see, I like to eat.
    Two. Rice is one of those ag related items which can and is being converted into bio-fuel. Just corn rice is being used as a fuel thus the cost of both rises. This is one this products which ups the cost of fuel for the transportation device and the fuel for our bodies.

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  12. Helen - We have several years where water was a hot topic. We supposedly were in drought for seven years and then, last year, they declared we were "out of drought." Now news is saying we have been in drought for two years. I think somebody is confused. LOL What surprised me more was the rationing of rice. It was a store similar to Sam's Club where this friend was trying to purchase rice. He was told that so much rice was being sent to the countries that had recent disasters and it was causing a shortage in America.

    Just A Thought - See my above comment to Helen about the rice issue. Concerning the water issue - If the farmers are in dire need, I would give up my green grass for them.

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  13. So far we're okay in Hollister. I hope you guys get your water and supplies back very soon. :)

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  14. Ronda - We are living in strange times, huh? Hope you don't have to endure any rationing.

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