Congress Considers Coastal Drilling This Week!

Hi Janice,

Last week we told you about renewed threats to our coast from off shore
drilling and asked you to help us pass a state resolution to show
support for protecting our coast. Now, as predicted, the House of
Representatives will vote Thursday on federal legislation that will remove the
current moratorium against drilling.

Please take a moment to let your representative know that you oppose
this legislation and want our coasts protected.

You can reach your representative at 202-224-3121. If you don't know
who your representative is, that's OK. Just tell the operator your zip
code, and he or she will connect you.

Here's a message you can leave with the office: "Hello, my name is
_________, and I live in _________. I am calling to urge Rep. _________ to
oppose H.R. 4761 and protect our coasts from off-shore drilling."

After you call, please report your call to us so we can keep track of
how many people are talking to their representatives. Then ask your
friends and family members to help out too by forwarding this message to
them.

To report your call, click here or paste this link in your web browser:

http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/action/oceans/reportcall?id4=ES


Background

The oil and gas lobby would like us to believe that after Hurricanes
Katrina and Rita we can drill our way out of our nation's energy
problems. But we know that opening our shores to drilling would only put our
beaches, coastal waters and a valuable tourism industry at great risk for
a small, short-term supply of oil and gas. We can do better. If we
allow offshore drilling, we'd still face a long-term energy crisis while
our environment and economy would face new risks due to the pollution and
potential for catastrophic spills off our coast.

Offshore drilling activities, which produce a steady stream of
pollution, destroy kelp beds, coral gardens and coastal wetlands. A single
offshore rig can drill between 50 and 100 wells, each dumping 25,000 pounds
of toxic metals such as lead, chromium and mercury, and potent
carcinogens like toluene, benzene and xylene, into the ocean. This pollution
from drilling would cause health and reproductive problems for fish and
other marine life.

We've seen how oil drilling can devastate our coastline - The infamous
oil spill of 1969 spilled 100,000 barrels of oil off the Santa Barbara
coast from one of Unocal's offshore platforms. Within days, the spill
contaminated 800 square miles of water surface, stretching to the
Mexican border. Thousands of birds died and fish stocks were decimated.

Accidents and operational violations have long been part of the
industry. A catastrophic spill -- one that could spoil the ecology and
economic value of our state's beaches for generations -- is a real
possibility.

For the past 25 years Congress has voted yearly to extend a ban on new
offshore oil and gas drilling and exploration. In May, Congress voted
down an amendment in the Interior Department appropriations bill that
would have allowed gas exploration in federally controlled waters three
miles from shore and instead passed an amendment that will restore
protections for one more year.

Now, one month later, legislators, led by U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo
(Tracy, CA), are working to open up our coast to oil and gas drilling. His
proposal would pit states against each other and allow drilling 50-100
miles from shore, unless state legislatures affirmatively act to block
it every five years. States would have one year to act to block natural
gas leasing and three years to block oil leasing.This means that if
California voted against oil and gas drilling, neighboring states could
vote in favor of oil and gas drilling. This legislation is coming up for
a vote on Thursday.


California's Congressional delegation can play a lead role in
protecting our coast. Currently, the oil and gas industry is counting on a
number of California's Congressional delegation to support this proposal.
Our delegation could give them the majority they need to win.

Help us stop this pro-drilling proposal in its tracks. Please take a
moment to call your representative and let him/her know that you oppose
this legislation and want our coasts protected.

You can reach your representative at 202-224-3121. If you don't know
who your representative is, that's OK. Just tell the operator your zip
code, and he or she will connect you.

Here's a message you can leave with the office: "Hello, my name is
_________, and I live in _________. I am calling to urge Rep. _________ to
oppose H.R. 4761 and protect our coasts from off-shore drilling."

After you call, please report your call to us so we can keep track of
how many people are talking to their representatives. Then ask your
friends and family members to help out too by forwarding this message to
them.

To report your call, click here or paste this link in your web browser:

http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/action/oceans/reportcall?id4=ES

Sincerely,

Dan Jacobson
Environment California Legislative Director
DanJ@environmentcalifornia.org
http://www.EnvironmentCalifornia.org

P.S. Thanks again for your support. Please feel free to share this
e-mail with your family and friends.

Lady Jan asks, "Is this the Devil's work?"

No, They're not!

These odd earth formations have gotten some really interesting names,

and the Devil's Marbles have some unusual belief behind them as well.

Devils Marbles from Jen's Chronicles
More info on the Devil's Marbles, Northern Territory, Australia

Northern Territory
In the creation story of the Dreaming, the Rainbow Serpent fashioned the earth and then returned to a spot east of the Kimberleys at a place where the rainbow meets the earth. The Rainbow Serpent's eggs fossilised and became what non-Aborigines now call the Devils Marbles. The Aborigines know them as Karlukarlu.

Because of this, the Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve is a spiritually significant and sacred site to the Aborigines.

Devils Postpile, California

Along the picturesque Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River at 7,600 feet on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada lies Devils Postpile National Monument. This formation began when basalt lava erupted in the Middle Fork valley. As lava flowed from the vent, it filled the valley near the postpile to a depth of 400 feet. Surface cracks formed when tensions caused by the shrinkage of the cooling lava were greater than the lava's strength. Each crack branched when it reached a critical length. Ideal conditions allowed surface cracks to deepen and form long post-like columns.

More info on the Devil's post pile, California,

And how it almost got blown-up!

Devils Postpile was once part of Yosemite National Park, but discovery of gold near Mammoth Lakes, California prompted a boundary change that left the Postpile on adjacent public land. A proposal to build a hydroelectric dam later called for blasting the Postpile into the river.

Influential Californians, including John Muir, persuaded the federal government to stop the demolition and in 1911 President Howard Taft made the area into a United States National Monument.

So yay, it didn't get blown-up!

Lady Jan's Swamp Cooler Adventure

Last night I heard running water, and said, "Oh no, something amiss!"

No I didn't! Who talks like that? But I did think to myself--self--You know you need to go out and see if the hose to the swamp cooler has busted! But self, I don't want to be mosquito chow! So--check on it tomorrow! Okay self, that's sounds like a good idea!

Next day--Oh crap!

Not only did the hose busted and looked like a Geyser, but it was the brass part of the old hose that got broken off into the adapter. The adapter connects the garden hose to the swamp cooler, and provides water to the cooler. I did try prying the brass out but the adapter, but It's plastic, and old. And soon I gave-up because if I did that I'd just wreck it. Then the problem was to find the tools to unscrew the adapter from the water cooler line, so I can then replace the adapter.

Which don't sound like a hard job at all, but then you don't know my husband! He keeps all the good tools at work, and all the crap tool scattered about here at home. We do have an old tall tool box on the porch left over from my husbands first industrial job working at a plastic factory. Back then he's oh so wonderful co-worker broke into his tool box and stole his tools. So we replaced it with a almost brake-in-proof tool box, and the old tool box was placed on the porch, and it was suppose to hold the home tools in.

It doesn't.

It holds some old broken down tools and some other miscellaneous stuff, but not the wrenches I needed.

S-0-0, I had a fine time looking for the tools I needed.

And I really need to get this fixed, because the next week it's gonna be in the triple digits, and a 107 degrees today. God, was it hot today! My husband could fix it, but he has been pulling some major hours at work, and when he comes home all he does is vege infront of the TV and then falls a sleep in the recliner. And I want the house to be cool for him when he comes home.

I found one adjustable wrench, which only succeeded in spinning it around, and around, and around. Well--that's not going to work!

Then I got lucky--another wrench! Yay! But, it was on so hard that all I was able to do was. . . .

"Ouch!" I pinch my finger! That how I got my blood blister.

Then eureka! I found two pipe wrenches hiding under my bed! You naughty things--so that's where you've been hiding.

After all the trouble I had earlier it was almost anticlimactic the way it came off s-o-o-o easily. But my husband has the car so how do I get the part?

Then more luck!

My mom called just then, as if on cue! And "Yes," she'll take me to Home Depot to get the part I needed. I treated for lunch, and came home and I simply screwed it into place, and turned on the water.

TA DA! It works!

Then my husband come home and looked at it, and said, "You did a good job Hun, but I think something wrong with the float." After he opened the swamp cooler up he said, "Oh, look the float is broken."

Back to Home Depot we went!

It's Mosquito Season!!! A Public Service Announcement from Your Lady Jan

It's Mosquito Season!!!!!

Each summer we have unique events happen in nature -- and because we live in densely populated areas and no longer have balanced habitat, some of these "events" turn into problems. Mosquitoes often become a problem...and once again, they are up to their old tricks...

It's only the females that bite:

Pregnant female mosquitoes need a meal of blood to get protein they need to lay their eggs. The female mates only once, storing sperm in her body to be dispensed as it is needed for the rest of her life. If you look closely at a female mosquito, you will see only one thin needle-like proboscis. However, there are four different tools inside this sheath. Two of them act like electric carving knives, with serrated edges that slice up and down to drill a hole in the donor’s skin. One acts like a hose, injecting saliva which thins the blood, prevents it from clotting, and makes it easier to suck. The fourth tool acts as a straw or syringe, drawing the blood from the capillary into the mosquito’s body. In 90 seconds of sucking, she can take in more than her weight in blood, supplying enough protein to enable her to lay several hundred eggs. After she’s done laying her eggs, she immediately begins to look for another blood meal so she can lay more. If she escapes predators and other disasters, she can lay eggs some 20 times before dying. Fortunately, only about one out of every 200 female mosquitoes lives long enough to reproduce.

The most Dangerous Animal in Africa:

When Teddy Roosevelt returned from an expedition to the Amazon, he was asked what the most dangerous animal he had encountered was. He replied without hesitation, "An insect!" and indeed it was so. Roosevelt contracted malaria in Brazil and was so weakened that he never fully recovered and died not long afterward. Until the 1900s, half of all human deaths could be traced to mosquitoes because of the two devastating diseases they carry: malaria and yellow fever.


West Nile virus

• West Nile virus is transmitted by mosquito bites. It cannot be transmitted
  from person to person.
  
• Avoid outdoor activity from dusk to dawn.
  
• Dress appropriately during peak mosquito hours (wear long sleeves).
  
• Use mosquito repellents containing DEET.
  
• Drain pools of water and remove objects that can hold stagnant water (old tires).

Avoid Mosquito Bites to Avoid Infection:

SOURCE: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

West Nile virus is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito, and can infect people, horses, many types of birds, and some other animals.

Most people who become infected with West Nile virus will have either no symptoms or only mild ones. On rare occasions, infection can result in a severe and sometimes fatal illness known as West Nile encephalitis (an inflammation of the brain). The risk of severe disease is higher for persons 50 years of age and older.

What Can The Property Owner Do To Reduce Mosquitoes?

• Get rid of old tires, tin cans, buckets, drums, bottles, or any water holding containers.
  
• Fill in or drain any low places (puddles, ruts) in yard.
  
• Keep drains, ditches, and culverts clean of weeds and trash so water will drain properly.
  
• Cover trash containers to keep out rainwater.
  
• Repair leaky pipes and outside faucets.
  
• Empty plastic wading pool at least once a week and store it indoors when not is use.
  
• Make sure your backyard pool is properly cared for while on vacation.
  
• Fill in water-holding tree rot holes and hollow stumps with sand or concrete.
  
• Change the water in birdbaths and plant pots, or dip trays at lease once each week.
  
• Keep grass cut short and shrubbery well trimmed around the house so adult mosquitoes will not hide there.

More Facts about West Nile

Some interesting facts about Mosquitoes:

• Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.
  
• Mosquitoes have 47 teeth, but only use their proboscis to bite.
  
• Only female mosquitoes bite.
  
• Mosquitoes prefer women over men to bite, probably because only female mosquitoes go for blood. And they also find the smell of estrogen and sweat to be especially appealing.
  
• Mosquitoes are attracted to the color blue twice as much as to any other color.2002/ Of the million-plus species of insects on earth, 3,000 of them are mosquitoes. More than 165 of those live in the United States.
  
• If you eat bananas, your skin will exude an odor that mosquitoes find attractive.
  
• Wearing dark colors only makes you more of a target, because mosquitoes can see your silhouette against the lighter back ground.
  
• Mosquitoes can smell your perspiration, and the carbon dioxide when you breath. (No wonder I've had mosquitoes fly up my nose! )
  

Lady Jan the Seducer. . . .Not!

I don't normally post something like this, but come on--I just had too.

My daughter was at her Nana's the other day, and my tired husband had just arrived home from work. After a while I thought. . .

Hey. . .We're. . . .Alone!

So I sauntered on over to my husband, and leaned over him to say in what I had hoped was a seductive manner,

"I . . .want . . . to . . . take . . . your . . . clothes . . . off . . . with . . . my. . . teeth."

He looked at me blankly.

???

"Huh?"

???

So I said it again, "I want to take your clothes off with my teeth."

???

"Huh?"

???

"Can you say that again?"

Louder, and with a whole lot less meaning, I said,

"I want to take your clothes off with my teeth!"

"Oh. I tough you said - - - - - - -"

My turn to say,

???

"Huh?"

???

"Can you repeat that please, because I don't think I heard you right."

So He repeated it,

"I thought you said, I want to pee on you with tea."

???

Well, that spoilt the mood!

Either I need to work on my seduction techniques, or my husband needs a hearing aide!