~ firefly-dreaming a virtual home to learn (or teach!) alternative methods of solving problems we find facing us each day. By sharing ideas & knowledge on living with less stress, more joy & embracing tolerance & compassion we are working towards building a sustainable future for all living beings.
I`m a day late this week, in posting reminders of what kind of life we stand to lose due to the oil gusher in the gulf.
I know it is presently capped, albeit temporarily, but I worry about the situation going south fast.
I feel that the decisions that were made in the last few weeks, are to hide to the public, the fact that they (BP) are not very confident they can stop this disaster, even with the relief wells so near completion.
But I post these images in hopes that people will never forget this disaster, man made, I should add, & never allow it to happen again.
It seems like greed has taken over, regardless of the consequences to the livelihood of humans, & the lives of all the defenseless animals above & below the surface.
Sometimes images from the past fade ..... except when they don't:
DIRECT DESCENDANTS? - Canadian film star Keanu Reeves and Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky.
Roll over Beethoven, and tell ..... you-know-who to stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
This is a "Flotel." It is a huge barge upon which pods, made of corrugated steel, stacked two high and three wide. Each pod holds 12 bunks. There are 4 bunks to a "room"
(Click on photo to enlarge)
There is a common area for eating, showering and leisure activities.
The men working for BP, in helping with the clean-up, are expected to put in 12 hour days, for 18 days straight, and then, they are to receive 3 days off. This means workers living in these "flotels" spend 24 hours a day there for 18 days straight. And it means being away from their families for a long time at a stretch.
Although workers had been promised motels, BP brought in these flotels, because of, or so they say,
One of the logistical difficulties in combating the Gulf oil disaster has been finding housing for the thousands of workers brought in by BP and its contractors to work on cleanup and containment operations . . . .
I don't know about where you live, but here in the mountains of No'Cackalackie it's been hotter 'n hades for weeks now. So hot that it's about impossible to do anything except get wet and sit in front of the fan. Or go swimming. Which is what my grandsons and I do. Because we can.
Less than a quarter mile from the bottom of our driveway is a place that's been lost to foreclosure with three spring fed trout ponds, one quite large with a fountain, a dock, a rusty john boat and a sand beach. Since nobody lives there anymore and nobody really owns it, we get to swim whenever we like as well as harvest the abundant offerings as they come in. Blackberries and raspberries are over, spicebush won't be ready until fall, but now it's elderberry time. And there's a lot of elderberries.
We had a little party of our own here yesterday in my neck of SE Portland, and 'blast' could be used in more ways than just what the sun gave us! 90 degrees by noon, yikes! Street trees abound here fortunately, so my pale and easily-burning Polish-Irish ass had plenty places to hide.
The 2010 Division-Clinton Street Fair, let me show you it!
