Spinning Water

We're trying to return to normal life. We were out of things so long that we're having a little trouble adjusting. The homework from 2 weeks of missed school is really getting to the Little Boy!

But all that time in the dining room, with him doing homework at the table has given me quite a bit of spinning time...

Yes, that's a dime. You're looking at a full bobbin of fine Shetland singles. I feel like I've been spinning this fleece for months...

Oh yeah. I have.

I'm still spinning laceweight out of that Shetland fleece I got for the Boar's Head Festival back in December. And while it still spins beautifully, and I love the completed yarn...


That's 465 yards of 2-ply laceweight and a dime (with 2 strands over it). All spun at the festival. It's so soft and squishy!

And I'm still going.

(Yes, I'm aware that bobbin is wound terribly! It was a partly left-over bobbin from the Boar's Head singles, and when I started spinning on it again, well, I chose hooks poorly. I don't usually spin that lopsided.)

I'm aiming for enough to make a shawl. I would like to make a Shetland shawl from the Shetland fleece I spun myself. But I'm getting a little tired of spinning these tiny little singles. I'll ply these 2 bobbins when I'm done, and see how much is there. And hope I don't have to do another pair of bobbins.

But I'm thinking I will have to in order to get enough for a shawl.

And then, yesterday evening, I was cleaning up after supper and went to fill me kettle for my morning tea...and got pee-water. The water coming out my faucet was yellow.

Disgusting.

We brushed out teeth and took our vitamins using water from a gallon I had stashed in the basement. I tried running it out, but the system was still too nasty.

It was finally clear (and smelled of chlorine) this morning, after running the tub and kitchen sink for a while.

It sure drives home the fact that I'm dependent on clean drinking water, and that I take it for granted. I assume that every time I turn on that tap - ta da! Water! Clean, potable water!

How many people in the world have never seen that? They've never turned on a tap, drank straight from the source and not feared illness?

We are truly blessed, and we take it for granted.

How many of us are prepared to go without that convenience? What if our water supply got tainted or disrupted?

I'm not trying to be alarmist, or indicating that I know anything more than the next person, but really...how many of us know how long to boil water to be sure it's safe? How many of us are prepared to drink yellow water?

I work with environmental contamination on a daily basis. I deal with quantifying the effect we've had on poisoning our planet. Are we ready to live without the things we take for granted?

What about the Great Lakes? Those huge bodies of water we live with every day. We get our water from them, one way or another. And they are under seige constantly, they are the subject of litigation, they are the potential source of irrigation and drinking water by western states (who keep hoping and trying...) Are we ready to watch our lakes, identifyable from space and some of the largest freshwater reservoirs in the world, be drained away, frittered and poisoned by our selfishness and taking them for granted?

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.

Could be our future.

What are you going to do about it?