Archive of entries posted by jfleck
Observations on a brief visit to Canada
Three of the five restaurants in which we have eaten during our brief visit have had hockey on the television. This includes breakfast this morning at Denny’s. The Kwik-E-Mart where we stopped to procure snacks had Hershey’s chocolate Stanley Cups for sale. Also, hockey on the television. The tendrils of empire extended to the park …
Continue reading ‘Observations on a brief visit to Canada’ »
Water’s for shippin’ over, too
My particular view of the water world is constrained by scarcity. We don’t move a lot of cargo on the Rio Grande or the Colorado, the two rivers in my immediate field of view. I forget, and our current trip to the Pacific Northwest has reminded me, of the magic of water in service of …
Oystercatchers: “evolution, wtf?”
Saw oystercatchers on a Puget Sound beach this week. Their beaks are a freakish orange-red: To which Nora commented, “evolution, wtf?”
Caspian terns
I spent time this afternoon watching Caspian terns fishing off the beach next to the Coupeville-Port Townsend ferry. This guy was successful. Later, when I was wandering the backwater nearby, I apparently got too close to the terns’ nesting area. The sent out the call, and five hovered around squawking while one repeatedly dive-bombed me. …
Seattle: creeping toward water
Our waitress at dinner tonight, on finding that Lissa and I are from Albuquerque, asked what brought us to Seattle. “The water,” Lissa said. “We’ve got lots,” the waitress said, pointing with a smile out the window to Elliott Bay. “Happy to share.” Seattle wraps around Elliott Bay, both geographically and historically. I guess that …
Farming, first world style
Given that I’ve got farming on the brain, our recent Amtrak trip across the western United States was fascinating. The train goes through a lot of farm country, I guess in part because there is a lot of farm country in the western United States. We saw strawberries in Oxnard, the metastasis that is California’s …
Total Mead/Powell storage headed for lowest level since Powell first filled
Ever the journalist in search of gloomy extremes, I just noticed that total storage in Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the two largest reservoirs used to manage flows on the Colorado River, is currently forecast (USBR pdf here) to end the current water year at its lowest level since 1968, when Powell, the uppermost reservoir …
Continue reading ‘Total Mead/Powell storage headed for lowest level since Powell first filled’ »
stuff I wrote elsewhere: junior groundwater pumping and the “futile call”
It’s complicated. That’s what I realized this morning as I engaged in the now-nearly-mandatory journalistic self-promotion exercise – tweeting my work. On one of the local water mailing lists, I was recently taken to task for feeding drought paranoia rather than pulling together comprehensive analyses. It’s a fair cop. I’ll try to keep it in …
Continue reading ‘stuff I wrote elsewhere: junior groundwater pumping and the “futile call”’ »
Fountain, then and now
Above is Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain. Below, the Drinkwell Original Pet Fountain. Homage?