Good morning. Well, I kinda sorta almost got a good night's sleep,, woke up perky, and myright leg did its disappearing act. Wham! Luckily, the trash can caught me. And it's by RUbbermaid, so it wasn't too painful for me, and the trash can bounced back. (Literally.)

So what's your fantasy today? (Non-sexual, please, keep it clean!)

Mine is that my mom agrees to something that is in her best interest. Of course, that'd make *me* probably have a heart attack... Hmm. Never mind.

Real fantasy:  I find the ultimately comfy shoes at a price I can afford so I can buy two pairs! :-)

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No word on missing kitty from neighbor, so we're.. well, he's not home, so we'll leave it at that.

Other cats are doing fine, as is the lizard, a tortoise (? Bit early in the year for them to come up to my place for the mulch pile, but okay?), this little dachshund that thinks my periwinkle is a Doggie Play Zone, and is hilarious b/c he's smaller than it is tall, and you can't see anything but his ears and tail tip. The cats find that fascinating, btw. Lil Miss sits on the fence and just *watches* like she's either planning the dog's demise or wondering why a giant dog-smelling rat is walking around. She's a bit odd that way. Shadow just sleeps onward. Not much bugs him as long as he gets his sunbeams, at his age.

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I won't reveal too much, but there's a rally by men in pointy white hoods coming up in my area in another week. I'm scared to pieces but am signing up to do an hour-long shift at the park for Love Against Hate via a collection of local churches and other organizations.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the KKK was known to burn Catholic churches, white skin be damned. They also supported the sterilization of whites who weren't politically acceptable (poor whites trying to form unions, or who hung out with non-whites). Nice folks, eh?  Ironically, btw, some of the modern haters would've been considered "not the right white" 100 years ago. *headdesk* History loves a good joke.

So why do they call it "fracking"? Sci-fi nuts know that's the F-word substitute in Syfy cable channel's reboot of "Battlestar Galactica" TV series a while back. Technically, "fracking" in oil and gas industry is short for "hydraulic fracturing", a process in which water (fresh water, drinkable water, agri-friendly water!) is wasted along with sand and chemicals (ack) into fissures in shale beds that contain oil and/or natural gas. The pressure of that crap forces the gas to the surface. Also any oil, should it exist, as oil is known to "float" on water, btw, but usually natural gas is the goal.

I think, personally, they love to use "fracking" b/c the nerds were watch the TV show, and "f*cking" up the earth is what this does.

Why do I say that? Well, mix sand, water, and, say, some household bleach in equal parts. Now force it, under pressure through a hose,  into a crack in your sidewalk. At a safe distance, which is why Fracking is done by *wells*, not human hands. Guess what? Groundwater contamination. Unstable rock. (Fracking is directly linked to Oklahoma's frequent little baby earth tremors, so common now that nobody notices anything under a 3 on the Richter scale.)  Now, imagine that sludge bubbling back at you is in a pipeline, flowing along with *more* bleach (in our home thought experiment), in the gas pipeline...

But they say the pipelines aren't a hazard. Except, of course, to *forests*. And soil. And fields. And... Wait, what?!

I say all that to say this: When the pipelines leak? What comes out looks like the worst gray sludge you can imagine, and it will kill wetlands, forests, etc., no problem. Why do I care? I grew up where l ittle gas wells and oil wells were common people's properties, and if they leaked? The solution was a fixture from the hardware store, and a match to burn off the "spill". This from utility employees, btw. The fix these days? Contain the spills with sandbags! or other physical barriers. Try that on mountains, where I live, and you can see why we're not thrilled to have a pipeline trying to move on through. By the time they get to their spill, it'll already be in our reservoirs and rivers. Even better? We don't get the natural gas. It's going to end up about 500 miles away. Could my area use affordable natural gas? Yep. Where's it going? Greater Newark, New Jersey, apparently...

Now, why is this so bad? Inexpensive natural gas! Well, aside from contaminating water, wasting water, and the chemical sludge issue... and the earthquakes from causing instability in bedrock... Umm... When the shales give up the last bit of petroleum product, the toxic sludge remains.

Considerr that the stuff in the pipelines is equivalent to trisodium phosphate (TSP), a cleanser you can get at the home improvement store to remove the thick creosote-grease left behind by fires in your home. At best. They're "patented", so no one knows what they really are until there's a spill. Toluene and benzene have been reported.

Toluene and benzene are so hazardous that inhaling their fumes can cause seizures, anemia, dizziness, unconsciousness, let alone ingestion of them (neurological is primary, then kidney issues). We all get some minor exposure (car exhaust can contain toluene, as can paint thinners, nail polish), but this is not stuff you want in any quantity other than "minor and not repeated". Or you can have permanent damage.

Back in chem, pre-med, I used thsoe in organic chem lab. Fully geared up. All it took was one person being clumsy (hungover), and we evacuated the lab and had to take emergency showers. Yep, fun stuff to dump into water. *facepalm*

I'll shut up now, but seriously, I can't legally put solar panels on my house b/c the power ocmpany here bought all rights to that and wind power even offshore (?!), but they can sned that stuff through a pipeline through forests and across rivers where people live. Sure, no problem. OMG. And we wonder why we have fibro and other weird ailments? Ack!

Now, you don't have to be an enviro-nut like me (third generation!) to know... you shouldn't shit in your well, to quote my Polish grandpa.

So when you hear about fracking... Now you know too much. Apologies for being a ranting nerd. I just cringe to think that even with Clean Water and Clean Air laws, we're still risking this damage ot us and our food and our water and our children. *sigh*

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OK, off to ... uh... how is it there's laundry again? Self-washing clothing! Now *there* is a fantasy!

Blessings on all!