Invasive mussels: Lucky for us

It's good news, but also a lesson why not to count on science and technology to keep up with our self-inflicted crises. To get us out of corners we paint ourselves into.

By now we all know about zebra and quagga mussels, how they got across the world to our lakes and streams, and how explosive is their proliferation when they invade. And you can't apply poisons unless you want a dead lake.  

Now the New York Times reports (Tuesday Feb. 25, 2014--A Scientist Takes On a Silent Invader) that biologist Daniel P. Molloy is hot on the trail of a safe agent to control them. Very exciting news.

Then if you read the story you see how lengthy and tenuous was the path to this success. How much the new discoveries hinged on things we couldn't count on. The story involves twenty years of concentrated work. And before that, it is the story of the education of this one Dr. Molloy. It goes back to 1956, when his father, a New York firefighter, died in a disastrous fire. Molloy was eight at the time. He and all the other children who lost their fathers in the fire were given scholarships to Fordham University. Now I'd say that chance at a fine education has paid off for all of us.

Wow. Would that happen today? I recall that the firefighters in our huge national tragedy in 2001 weren't offered much but our honorifics, at least until a hue and cry went up.

Yes, there are marvelous technological developments on the drawing boards around the world, each hoping to help us with our gathering disasters: climate disruption, species extinction, and related messes.  But how slow it can be. And paraphrasing the lines delivered by Clint Eastwood, "do we feel lucky? Do we? Do we?"

How to live in this corporate world?

There's a strain of Puritan in me. Which seeks to be blameless, harmless, but is narrow and has too much fear at its base, even though it has a sprinkling of love. There's another strain in me of seven-generation vision, which is more expansive, though tinged with sorrow at earth's losses. The emotion often doesn't want to flow through me and leave me softened and at rest, but instead eddies in circles along each side of the flow.

Late-summer brought the pleasure of painting our house a vibrant new color. Of truly owning our home instead of going for safe resale value. We went for very high quality paint, not wanting to paint again for 10 years. We went to our local paint store, naturally, which has a wonderful, knowledge-deep staff. We asked about low VOC, and learned the entire industry has been moving to lower volatile organic compounds in paint, and we should be confident in our selection. We chose their Pittsburgh paint.

We even got a rebate, from PPG Industries. 

So it was with a familiar sinking feeling that I read in the Sunday Seattle Times that PPG had been sued by the West Virginia Department of Ecology over repeatedly dumping illegal amounts of mercury into the Ohio River from Natrium, south of Wheeling, West VA. The reason this was mentioned was the big story out of Charleston, West Virginia and this month's disaster of their ruined drinking water. The article was about the backdrop of West Virginia politics setting up the disaster to happen.

The way it works there is interesting. PPG actually asked Ecology to sue them. This would enable them to stave off being sued by two environmental groups under the Clean Water Act. Apparently, they were confident the state would be a friendly adversary. And indeed, the state could seize the issue this way and settle with PPG, who could then return to business as usual? It's not clear from just this sidelight in the larger story. But was is clear is that the West Virginia governmental bodies are anti-regulation. You'd think that was maybe natural given the importance of coal mining there.

You'd be left scratching your head. Because it says that today coal mining only employs four percent of WV's labor force.

Anyway, back to my title question. How can I live in this big corporate world? Was there a better choice of paint I wasn't aware of?  Or that I didn't want to be aware of because of the budget and the rebate?

And then I think, right action can't all rest on my shoulders. How to live? My answer for now is to participate in the cultural discussion, and push for shining light on our dark corners. Things do get addressed that way, in time.

Best idea I've heard about car sharing

A Zurich comedian--he takes the Swiss reputation for tidiness to whimsical extreme, even "unjumbling" corn chowder into neat rows of kernels, followed by a neat row of pimento bits--was profiled in the New York Times today. The reporter was naturally interested in his apartment--messy or neat?

But the thing that grabbed my attention was his apartment building and it's features. It's a cooperative, where you buy your apartment, fairly cheaply, and also pay a hefty monthly maintenance fee. Here's the best one: For 81 units, they have leased three cars from a car-sharing company. Residents can sign one out "like a library book."

How cool it that?

See more in "The Art of Unjumbling," Home section (D) NYT Thursday, March 28, 2013.

New safety deposit box is a two-fer

It was nice that moving our safety deposit box contents from a bank to a credit union saved us 40%. It was a fun bonus that we're no longer doing business, even if indirectly, with Diebold..

Rug mats--nonskid but slippery

Getting back to rug mats. My hardwood floor guy hadn't seen anything on the "made with 100% plant based. . ." mats, so wouldn't  say yay or no. Only that bigger holes for breathe-ability was key.

I ordered two anyway, from an established natural rug company. I have to say, they are quite sticky--I mean that rug is not going to slide one bit, and making a shift on purpose is a hands and knees fussy chore. (February 2013 update:  I pulled up the runner to clean the floor. Had to get  down on my hands and knees to scrub off a residue left my my new mat. So I really don't recommend them now!  And when I politely wrote to their salespeople to let them know my experience--I owed them that--they didn't give me the courtesy of a reply. So now they shall be named: "Natural Area Rugs")

I like better the older one I already had, which had been given to me (re-use!). And to me the info on the package of the new ones (and the info from asking the dealer) to be unsatisfactory. "Made with" is not saying what other ingredients were included, implying 100% plant based without actually saying so. Made in China is what it was.

So, I don't think it is worth paying more to get a "green" but slippery label.

Green backfirings--re-use and more

Re-use goof-up
I guess I re-used that talcum powder shaker one time too many. And yeah, I guess I knew that the bottom plug no longer fit tightly. I guess the housing was cracked.

Still, what a surprise when that cloud of powder flew. Onto pantleg and shoe and sock, onto the toilet seat, the rest of the toilet, the bath rug, the linoleum, into the little trash can. And into the air. Whew!  Is that why they call it the "powder room?" One more reason to switch to cornstarch--isn't talcum unsafe to breathe?

Took me a day to decide how to clean it up. I could picture the vacuum cleaner bag emitting white puffs in future vacuumings. The alternative of a wet rag sounded like a pasty mess. I ended up using a bit of rag I could just garbage afterwards. And I washed the trash can (the smell was lingering).

Natural soil improvement--or not
While I'm thinking of it, we've had an apparent backfire in one garden bed. The green idea of applying compost on top of poor soil and let time and worms and microbes make a good soil structure. I think it is still a good idea, but not in every case.


The dirt that was turned up for the patio excavation and placed behind the retaining wall was kind of OK along one portion of the wall, but at the end it's been a bed of death for a succession of plantings, even with the planting hole well amended. I didn't listen to the contractor who suggested we could haul away the dirt-- he'd just shaped into place!--and bring in fresh topsoil.

Even the native deer ferns, our last attempt, died or look bad. But the hardy geranium that crawled over from the neighbors' garden is doing well. Go figure. We know we  messed up on one shrub--when a buck pushed it over we failed to get it re-planted in time to prevent substantial root death. And we didn't have quite enough sun there for native lupine. But the lupine didn't even make much attempt the year after we planted nice big ones.  It's the soil. Maybe the original contractor put some nasty stuff into what he buried under the original deck, and we brought it up unawares. We'll never know.

But most times, greener actions are working out fine, so I will plow forward, so to speak. And try to retain my sense of humor.

Halloween is like real life

There was a “For Better or For Worse” cartoon strip in which Michael is all set for trick-or-treating with his friends. He’s a WWI flying ace. With helmet, goggles and, of course, the flowing white scarf. Even better, a cardboard biplane replica hangs from his shoulders, putting him in the cockpit. He is so cool!

He and his plane are almost out the door when Mom tells him to take his little sister Lizzie along, just until Mom can get out. Michael thinks it is a disaster that will cramp the boys’ style.

But at door after door the homeowners exclaim how nice it is to see the little one out with the bigger kids, and they dump extra candy in the group's bags. So when Mom arrives as promised to take Lizzie, Michael says, “Never mind, Mom—we’ll keep her!”

Michael has learned something new, and so can I. 

I can enjoy the creative masks and costumes of businesses and political campaigners looking for candy for themselves or their sponsors. And then, reward those who are looking out for Lizzie, whether she is our sister, our community or our beleaguered planet.