Dittos Here The Bible's old testament speaks of a wrathful God who punishes those who won't worship at his feet. The Bible's new testament speaks of an ever loving all forgiving embracing God no matter what. Sounds like there should be two separate religions based on either instead of one single religion called Christianity. They're in complete opposites. What's with that?
There are literally thousands of religions What each have in common is their "none communality" with all others beliefs who differ. Each believe God needs man's help to fulfill some sort of mission. Here are these thousands of belief systems so full of themselves they deny the very tenants of each of their proclamations--that God is all powerful. Talk about people self deluding themselves in hypocrisy !
Here's What I Believe There is this something that exists in all things wherein he/she/it expresses itself wherever it is possible to occupy some "thing". This "thing"--whatever it is--then seeks some sort of permanence which is not possible. Thus trouble arises when whatever is occupied seeks to prolong it's existence. We as individuals are of that nature. Trees, plants, animals even solar systems are as well. Each seeks further existence at the expense of another.
This he/she/it is beyond all such things as good/evil, right/wrong, pleasure/suffering or any other way we measure such "things". If we ever hope to understand the nature of so-called God he/she/it cannot be understood in such terms. For a start we have to accept there is a certain consciousness in all "things" which has no such permanence. Whatever this source possesses is unto itself. This brings us to the debate whether there's a after life.
If we never existed before one's individual birth would it even matter if there were none in the hereafter? No punishment--no reward. No nothing say for the life span he/she/it occupied for the time being of a so-called individual human, plant or animal
So how about this instead. (1) We seek in the short time span we have available for our understanding the nature of this he/she/it. (2) Try and make comfortable as possible in all "things" who share in this commonality. (3) Admit to ourselves not one "thing" may have an existence beyond this one. Hence make a determined effort to not cut short or make someone else suffer because of our actions needlessly.
I truly don't know whether this being is a personal God or not. Whether he/she/it gives a crap is up to debate, but being we're in this together for a short time--SHOULD'NT WE !
Back in November 2013 Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats played one hellva' encore at The Gothic Theater in Denver, Colorado.
"S.O.B." & "The Shape I'm In"
Last year they appeared on James Corden's Late Late Show in April 2016 ""I Need Never Get Old"
Here's an interview published on Mar 8, 2017
Nathaniel and the band travel the world. Unfortunately for us here in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania the closest they will appear--according to their website--will be in a suburb on the other side of Pittsburgh. They will perform at the Keybank Pavilion in Burgettstown, Pa. on Friday, August 18, 2017. Tickets range from $30 to $80.
Sometimes when I start to compose a short blog piece it ends up far longer then what I first intended.
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Why should you read Tolstoy's "War and Peace"? Brendan Pelsue- TED-Ed
If you're anything like me few have the stamina for a long read.
Fortunately in 1972-1973 the BBC took on the challenge of producing a film. Alas even that might have been too much for me. If anyone has the endurance to dedicate themselves to watching the series someone posted it HERE on YouTube.
I'd appreciate if someone would let me know in five or six sentences what was the entire film was about and how it ended up. If anyone can do that they're a much better blogger then me when it comes to short pieces.
"A 1,400-capacity concert hall hosting 200 to 250 concerts a year would be part of a proposed $250 million Five City Center complex in Allentown... the 24-story Innovation Tower at Eighth and Hamilton streets — 225 upscale apartments, a garage with more than 800 parking spaces and the park."
At this point the blank check written in Harrisburg for NIZ is headed towards the $2 billion mark. I really truly hope this building taller then the PPL building works out but is this building too ambitious?
Unless the developer has a very successful plan for relocating New York City businesses here I have my doubts. If he does--and that succeeds--it will finally bring to realization what the NIZ was intended to do all along--bring new businesses into Pennsylvania.
I'm not too sure about the promised 200+ concerts. Seems a over statement. That said sometimes bigger isn't always better. I've never had a desire to live in NYC as much as I like visiting it. Nor do I want Allentown to become like a 6th borough of New York City. However I tend to think this is where we're headed and this will pan out eventually whether I or other old codgers like myself approve or not.
Such is the way of the world when it comes to so-called progress.
At Friday night services, Morris goes to his friend Irving and says, "I need a favor. I'm sleeping with the Rabbi's wife. Can you hold him in the synagogue for an hour after services for me?"
Irving is not very fond of the idea, but being Morris' is his very best lifelong friend, he reluctantly agrees.
After services, he strikes up a conversation with the Rabbi, asking him all sorts of stupid questions - just to keep him occupied.
After some time the wise Rabbi becomes suspicious and asks, "Irving what are you really up to?"
Irving, filled with feelings of guilt and remorse confesses to the Rabbi, "I'm sorry, Rabbi. My friend is sleeping with your wife right now, so he asked me to keep you occupied."
The Rabbi smiles, puts a brotherly hand on Irving's shoulder and says, "You better hurry home, Irving. My wife died two years ago!"
One may ask why I would bring this up. Well I've always had this "monkey see.. monkey do" theory.
Let a few of our state legislators here in the U.S. get a whiff of this and you never know if they'd make a run for this too.
Not to mention insurance companies' cost penalties. Six points could result in a 300% increase in a driver's premiums--even if a driver never had one accident !
"The Sun" (UK) came across a "£200 [$256.34 US] 'coffin in a box', which takes 15 minutes to assemble". All precut & hardware included. They even deliver. Too bad this one is only available in the Netherlands :-(
COMMENT: If Trump decides to start WWIII it looks like fleeing refugees will turn out to be South Korea's problem. Doesn't sound like a great plan to me. I'm certain more then one South Korean leader is thinking it isn't such a swell plan either. Who stands to lose the most?
Just saying...The White House Easter Egg Roll
Which of these entertainers do you think drew an obviously larger crowd of kids who could relate to the performances?
Trumps 2017 Easter Egg Roll 'Bunny Hop Stage' entertainment?
OR...
Obama's Silentó at the 2016 Easter Egg Roll
I could post the kid book readers. I think with Spicer and Sessions reading to kids most can figure out how that went over too :-)
The Allentown mayor is required by ordinance to submit 5 year plan every year. City council got tired of asking and never getting one. So they filed a "right to know" request.
This is what they got in response...
It has more redactions then what a CIA document would contain.
You can check out the city council meeting video for yourself. It comes 52:47 minutes into the meeting Council showed the letter they received in response to a speaker who wanted to know how much is spent on overtime. Council said they've been blocked by the mayor when they request such pertinent information when it comes to mulling the city's budget request each year by the mayor. Council complained they can't get the required five year plan until they file a RTK request. When they do--it looks like this!
Damned if you do.. Damned if you don't For years I've read comments from trolls on various sites complaining about council not doing it's job. Now some are complaining the president of city council is grandstanding since he decided to run for mayor. So let me get this right. If a council member doesn't question the mayor they're a bum who should be thrown out of office. On the other hand--when they do they're grandstanding. Why don't those complaining run for office or try and see if they can pry this information from the mayor's clutches. Good luck with that.
The mayor is receiving $95,000. The way Allentown's charter is written the mayor isn't required to show up for council meetings. Thusly he doesn't have to face off with his constituents. As a result the mayor is free to appear or not appear whenever and where ever on his own terms to only those he deems favorable to him.
One the other hand council members are paid only around $5,200 a year. For this they receive all the brunt for everything the mayor does with little to no power to do anything about citizen complaints. As one can see in the video only about a dozen citizens bother to show up. When they do it is to complain or grill council. For fifty two hundreds buck$ a year most of us would say they could take this kind of job and shove it.
Mayoral election is coming up These are a few things I'd like the next mayor to address.
Talk of reform started back in the days of Ronald Reagan. Still Congress fails to act unto this day. If Donald Trump thinks Congress is going to help or pay for his wall he's fooling himself. Numerous presidents have been on this journey before. Here's a few videos which demonstrate why this will never happen for Donald.
President Obama was fooled as well. Here he is speaking to the press after meeting with a bipartisan group of Congressional leaders to discuss ideas for immigration reform. June 25, 2009.
Here he is again speaking from the White House Rose Garden on June 30, 2014. (five long years later of his frustrations)
Again on Nov 22, 2014 (some five months after that)
Now let's move on to the the 3rd presidential debate in 2016
POLITICAL THEATRE
Congress couldn't agree on having eggs or pancakes for breakfast. The thing we do know is if Democrats want pancakes...Republicans want eggs. So too vice versa. Bipartisan immigration reform isn't ever going to happen. Trump lied about Hillary's position on immigration. Hillary exaggerated Donald's (or did she given what's happening under his executive orders?).
Barack Obama sincerely tried to reach a compromise. Republicans wouldn't have any part of it. Trump on the other hand thinks he can steamroll congress now that he's president.
I'm here to tell ya, it doesn't matter whether someone (even the President) believes immigration is evil or one that adds value to our nation... congress will make damn sure this never gets resolved. It's too important to both sides when it comes to BS'ing their way back into office. There are sensible solutions. But you can bet your bottom dollar both sides will keep their bases fired up. We and the immigrants are just the monkeys in the middle.
One side pretends the other wants an open door policy. The other wants to completely shut out immigration. Neither of these are a practical solution.
COMMENT: In this case I can sympathize with the airline. Whenever I have guests over I always make them sit on the floor or bring folding chairs. Why should I let them sit on my good furniture without paying for it.
Here a few of the large businesses once exclusive to Allentown that have since disappeared from the city (other then retail and eateries).
Furniture Stores: (Berman & Glazier, Harold Furniture Co., Stern & Co., Miller Furniture Co. and J.B. VanSciver). Dry Cleaners: (Kohlers, Allen Laundry, Tidy-Didy Diaper Service). Men's & Women's hat, clothiers and tailoring shops. Grocery stores: (Mohican market, A&P, Food Fair). Dozens of knitting and sewing mills: (Franklin knitting, Charis, Phoenix, Levin's). These along with A&B meats, Mack Trucks two huge locations (S. 10 Street & 12th & Lehigh), Breweries: (Neuweiler, Horlacher & Daeufer-Lieberman). Shoe manufacturers: (Quaker), several city founded banks, Appliance/electronic sales and repair: (Eastern Light, Laubach & Johnson, Peters, Lafeytte),.... I could go on and on.
The Point Is
We can't make Allentown thrive once again hosting only offices, retailers and eateries. Yes It's true most of these older jobs I mentioned either went overseas, relocated to industrial parks outside of the city or are no longer in demand. But what we still need are neighborhood jobs if we're going to improve. Years ago businesses were scattered throughout town. These days concentrated industrial/warehouse areas are the way to go. So how could we have found better ways in trying to revive the city?
One way we can't do it is by trying to make us a bedroom community for blue collar jobs residing outside the city. Offices and eateries can only take us so far. One of the things Bethlehem has done well is to set up a large industrial area close to I-78 and rail service. We've gone in the opposite direction. For example rather then encourage development along Lehigh Street near I-78 it's filled with car dealerships and retailers. It started off well enough (near the rail tracks to the South) but we never fully exploited the opportunity when we had it. We also dropped the ball in the Basin Street and 7th & Lehigh Street areas which houses older buildings. Each having close access to the Allentown rail yards.
Don't get me wrong I like Coca-Cola baseball park as much as anybody, but wouldn't it been better located on what currently is Allentown's non profitable golf course? There's just as easy an access off of 309 (I-78) or down Cedar Crest from Route 22 much like it is now. The area where the ball park is currently located would have been a perfect location for industrial warehouses seeking easy access for both trucks leaving and to the airport bringing in shipments.
Besides Industrial Parks?
HOUSING: Allentown doesn't need more housing. What we need is the "right" kind of housing. I understand it can take a long time but the city needs to be more aggressive with it's boarded up housing problem. Instead of incentivizing new construction--dilapidated current structures should be brought up to standard or torn down. Why not offer someone who is willing to buy and fix them up--with the contingency they have to live in them--the opportunity to live tax free for a few years? After all most of these boarded up properties aren't generating taxes now anyway. What we're seeing instead is a handful of individuals from outside the city sitting on these properties. Small individual homeowners will always have a greater stake in what happens within our neighborhoods when they have to live in them.
SMALL BUSINESS STARTUPS: One or two years tax free dependent on them owning the building. It's important for them to own the building. Otherwise some will stiff the landlord--take the money and run. Some may argue they could do the same with taxes. Not if they agree the city holds a "deed of trust" for the first one or two years if they should skip town after bagging the profits.
SCHOOLS: Let's not kid ourselves Allentown schools are a mess. We've had several neighbors move here. When they started to have children--or when their kids were old enough to go to school--they sold their homes and moved out. One of the reasons ours schools are such a mess is because of administration not the educators. Check out this story in The Morning Call on April 14, 2017-- Report finds 'waste, abuse' of money in Allentown School Distriact's business office-- "The Morning Call had filed a Right-to-Know request for the report, but the district denied the request. The request was also denied at the state level on appeal." Unless/until we straighten our Allentown schools things aren't going to improve the situation either.
In Summary
We may not be able to turn back the hands of time, but there's better ways of going about then the way we have. It doesn't help our government is under a cloud right now with the FBI investigation going on down at city hall either.
I do think Allentown stands a chance to improve. What we all need to understand is the situation isn't hopeless--but without a clear understanding of the past mistakes made and taking future course corrections these hopes grow dimmer It's my wish--with the upcoming elections looming on the horizon--whoever leads the city and the school district forward in the next few years manages to do better jobs.
Who among us can't relate to this? Some guy who hogs up two spaces.
Where I use to work some guy always angle parked across two spaces. One day I came out and two cars were parked aside of him on the same angle along with a rather nasty note left on his windshield. It didn't cure him but at least he moved two rows some 40 feet further out. A place where not even revenge parkers cared to walk any further then they had to :-)
I posted about this BS back on August 20, 2016. Lately they've started up again being the wife is nearing her age for Medicare. The last few days we've been inundated with 15-16 calls a day!
In my prior post I presented a sound file which would help eliminate these kind of calls.
Since then I wonder if these bozos might have changed the way their machines respond. I'm about to find out. I started employing my sound file once again. See how it goes. Ill let you know with an update in a few days.
How can I put this nicely?
I wouldn't buy from one of you bastards if you were the last on earth. If this is how you treat customers you want to entice I can't imagine how you'd treat them if they were signed up or late on payments. God sakes these guys are worse then bill collectors.
UPDATED: 04/15/2017
Since I posted this three days ago on Wednesday I've received only two calls on Friday. Today is Saturday and none so far. It looks like playing that sound file I talked about into the telephone still works out well.
Wikipedia: Godwin's Law states-- "if an online discussion (regardless of topic or scope) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to Hitler."
Whitehouse spokesman Sean Spicer the other day fell victim to it. The topic was over the use of Syria's chemical weapons and Spicer's awful attempt in trying to compare it to Hitler's use. This is totally understandable when you're speaking on the fly.
I by no means am a fan of Spicer. I think he is in way over his head. Who wouldn't be trying to explain Trump's never ending contradictions. However it's sort of amusing to see someone who faces the same dilemma I have when trying to make up these posts. The great advantage I have is I'm able to delete the things I might have posted before I screwed up. Sean on the other hand is speaking in real-time. In that I'm more persuaded to forgive him when he paints himself into a corner like he did on this one issue.
What I'm less forgiving of is his inability to get names, places and the facts correct. Sometimes he outright lies for the president. So while I'm more then willing to forgive his shortcomings I question his character as to why he allows himself to be placed in such a position. I certainly would never allow myself to take such a job. This is where we two go our separate ways on principles
By no means am I comparing myself to Sean. I'm sure a plenty of people agree I'm just some crappy little ole' blogger. AND that's exactly the way I like it :-)
Funny how artists always demand freedom of expression--but not so much when it comes to their works. If I may suggest perhaps both could be replaced with this...
Maybe one of New York's steam lines could be hooked up underneath for greater effect?
At one time everyone did their shopping downtown. Then along came the malls. Now they too are facing the same challenges trying to survive in the marketplace. I tend to think the take away is consumers are no longer interested in large shopping mecca's. Smaller locally owned specialty shops seem to be more sustainable. While there still may be a need for 'big box' stores--consumers no longer seem interested driving on the ever increasing crowded highways more then a couple of miles from where they live to get to them.
One of the things I've noticed with my own shopping habits--when it comes to big ticket items--I can do better online.
We all can relate to the misinformation underpaid/commissioned retail sales employees sometimes gave us in order to make a sale. Online I can do a lot more research on the item myself without driving to several stores. Online delivery costs these days are compatible to what brick and mortar stores are able to provide. To name a couple Recently we purchased two custom made to order mattresses out of New York. A electric generator from Tennessee. Both purchases worked out well. More importantly I always try to buy American. Most retail stores carry inventories that are not.
There's more reasons I--like I'm sure many others--prefer to give my business to private owners. For the most part private ownership provides better benefits and salary to their workers because they don't have to pay out high salaries to corporate management and stockholders. Private owners have a lot more vested interest in providing quality products over some management employee drifting from company to company. To my way of thinking this is the old fashion way of doing business. When Al Boscov, Max Hess, John Wanamaker or other owners directly ran their businesses is nothing like these retailers we're seeing today. Too much overhead--less dedicated employees. No wonder malls are folding.
It's tough to always buy local. However this doesn't mean consumers can't support private ownership via the internet. Sorry if that's bad news for these malls, but I consider that a good thing.
Boston's WHDH TV 7 News reported on 04/07/2017 how a man was denied a $100,000 jackpot because a woman pushed the button instead of him. Evidently it doesn't matter who is paying for the slot machine. The only thing that matters is who pushes the button. Supposedly he told her to push the button for him hoping for good luck. Turns out it was quite lucky.. for her. Him.. not so much.
Reportedly she walked out of the Ft. Lauderdale casino with the $100g's in hand leaving him behind. It was said she even had the nerve to ask security to escort her out alone so her date couldn't follow her.
Personally I don't see those two having much of a future. Too many differences. His understanding of getting lucky is apparently far different then hers.
Besides it looks like she already gave him a "honey moon".
I'm not going to debate who did what to who or why. Whether it was justified or not. Whether it was a false flag operation or if it was legal. What really matters is what was accomplished?
A few hours after the $60+ million dollars worth of missiles pounded one of six Assaad's air bases he went right back at it. He bombed the same city the gas attack reportedly took place as a way of flipping the finger to the world. The people there are no better off for it. The way I see it many innocent Syrians are getting bombed by their own leader, Russia, the United States, ISIS and by so-called Syrian rebels. In short there's no way we can bomb our way out of this one. So what's the answer?
Maybe it's best we stay out of this mess. Assaad may be an ahole but what's the alternative?
ISIS?
The so-called rebels or Russian/Iranian control?
Which is the less of all evils?
Seems to me no matter which way this turns out the Syrian people are screwed.
From A Taxpayer's POV Even it could be said my home's value has increased doesn't mean it generates one single dollar more revenue for me. Yet when it comes to school taxes on the property we get hit two ways. (1) When reappraisals go up. (2) When mileage increases. What a lousy way to fund schools. On top of that there's a huge number of us on fixed incomes who retirement sources never come close to rising at the same rate as these taxes.
Funding Considerations I'm against funding schools through property values on primary residences. Another argument could be made for imposing a school value added tax at the time of sale. BUT NEVER for peoples primary homes that aren't generating increased revenue. If a point could be stretched maybe for business properties that increase in value it might make some sense.
Perhaps rentals should be included considering they are a business and for two other reasons. (1) Responsible home ownership should be encouraged. (2) Rentals tend to put our neighborhood school populations in a expensive constant state of flux ss you see in the following story.
If Allentown had a large population of homeowners instead of renters with kids constantly moving around all the time this would be less necessary. Kids do better academically when they aren't moved school to school. These special programs could be consolidated to where they are most needed on a long term basis. More importantly it makes better financial sense not to constantly be closing down one school then paying to expand another. Then in a few years regret selling off a school that might be needed a few years down the pike when the student population shifts back again.
A Few Ideas For Funding Schools * A value added school tax at the time of sale on privately owned primary residences. A higher value added tax on non primary residential properties.
* Lessen the deductions for dependent children both on federal and state income taxes. The way it works now childless couples are paying more on their earnings while couples (who's children actually use schools) are burdening the budgets for educations. These deductions came about when we encouraged larger populations. This should no longer be the case. Despite less deductions be allowed for children this would be offset by reducing or eliminating property taxes. Thus making it possible for more young couples with children to own homes. Course the state and federal government would have to pass these increased revenues along.
There's a few more advantages. People being able to hold on to their homes longer after retirement. Greater tax fairness in not financially punishing someone for not having children. Schools would see their budgets rise with incomes. This is better then having to face angry home owners year after year when they price them out of their homes.
* Federal and states laws have to change. It's unfair public schools are saddled with different requirements then charter schools due to unfair lobbying of our law makers. At the current time public schools have to provide the same pupil costs to charter schools without the same restraints public school programs are required to provide. While I don't see that as happening--it still remains a fact.
A Few Ideas For Allentown's Schools * Consolidation. Currently the Allentown School District has 25 schools. One of the advantages some suburban schools take advantage of is having almost all their schools on one campus. In Allentown we have almost 25 principles along with the associated staffing at each. This includes separate cafeterias, janitorial services, etc By consolidation much of these could be eliminated. In some districts (who have main campuses) when the elementary buildings becomes overcrowded they move some classes over the middle school next door (and vice versa).
While transportation cost may be a factor--I'm certain moving pupils around would be more cost effective then opening, closing and expanding buildings year after year. Instead of dozens of music rooms, gyms, crossing guards/security staff, auditoriums, heating plants and so forth they all could be reduced to just 3 or 4 in large buildings. I don't see how this wouldn't make sense.
* Currently According to the ASD website the poverty rate is 38.64% (89.1% denoted as low income). Students come from 51 different countries (speaking 26 languages). One of problems I see here is students are geographically assigned to one of our 25 schools. The quickest and most effect way to integrate separate languages, cultures and financial background differences isn't by isolating them from one another. Hence the need for what I spoke about above regarding consolidation. It's one thing for educators to try and assimilate students, but the most efficient and cost effective method is to actually assimilate them among their peers.
* Finally let's talk about the whacky way we go about hiring administrators. The school board itself needs a wake up call when it comes to hiring. The current way we do business has got to go. The first step is to pay recruiters or advertise nationwide for some drifter who is double dipping their retirement or wants a guaranteed contract. Folks this isn't some wall street corporate CEO we should be looking for. How many times do we need to get burned before we figure this out?
I'm positive we can find qualified people within our district or outside of it who would be willing to take the job without a contract that rivals that of an NFL player. It's sheer lunacy the way we've paid for folks who taken advantage of this idiocracy. Someone performs the job or they're let go just like anyone else. There--is that so hard to understand?
* Free lunches: There's nobody who will ever convince me some kid can't afford a packed lunch. Be realistic how much could a baloney sandwich already bought with taxpayer supported food stamps for impoverished kids cost. Great if ASD get' federal funds, but really--it's shouldn't be ASD's taxpayers' responsibility for something they already paid for.
* Free daycare for underage student's offspring: There's nothing wrong with it but shouldn't come out of schools educational budgets for other students.
* Pre-kindergarten: Taxpayers are already on the hook for 13 years of education. In reality it is nothing more then free daycare. Most parents are more then qualified to prepare their kids. No one needs a degree to help their kids play with crayons, turn on the TV or access the internet if they are so inclined. There are a great deal of others who can afford to send their kids off to nursery school but instead choose to cheap out making the rest of us pay for it. Let em be kids for one more year. There's nothing wrong with it.
IN SUMMARY
Education has become big business, a lot more complicated and expensive then it need be. We'd do far better for our kids by allowing them to commingle rather then separating them by neighborhoods, culture and financial upbringings in small neighborhood school buildings.
There's plenty of other ways to provide school funding. Instead of punishing someone because either they are childless or happen to own a home there are alternatives we haven't explored.
"philly.com" is reporting on something I thought about--blueberries.
This family is a huge consumer. The wife bakes them in muffins and homemade pancakes/waffles. The granddaughters eat a bowl of them at a time and we make shakes out of them.
Although the job pays well--the hours are long and the work is hard.
Simply put--I don't see American workers willing to pick them
Much of the same problems exist on farms from coast to coast. Whether it be vegetable/fruit crops, dairy or meat operations a bunch of farms are having trouble finding labor. So are the seasonal amusement parks and contractors who relied on foreign labor..
Enough Said Unless we adopt better policies consumers are going to be hit hard
I did a little research today and what I found was astounding. I took the actual numbers from my water bill and determined I pay a penny a gallon (which includes sewage charges). I then shopped online several places and determined the lowest price I could find for bottled water. This turned out to be $1.99 per gallon for a family size case of a generic brand. So there you have it. Some fools are paying (if not more) a markup of 19,900%. That's 200x's more !
Some will argue what I'm drinking it may not be clean as bottled water. Hold on there hoss. I use a osmosis device for all my drinking water. I guarantee you the water quality is better then what's in these bottles. Bottlers only use charcoal filters. The device I have uses a sediment filter, two charcoal canisters before it's further filtered through a membrane into a holding tank. When water is drawn from the tank it goes through yet another charcoal filter.
I could go into a long diatribe of the differences. Instead I'll break this down simple as possible. According to 'Bottled Water Web' 'Nestle's Pure Life' water bottles contain between 66-92 PPM dissolved solids overall. The meter I have indicates my osmosis water contains around 28 PPM.
There a couple of advantages to having less solids then the normal 250 PPM that usually comes out of the tap (sometimes even more from wells). Ccoffee and mixed juices taste far better. The water itself has no chlorine taste or some of those funky flavors that come out of well water (even treated water at times). Due to having 1/10th of the solids I haven't had scale build up inside my coffee maker for over three years now. Using tap water I went through almost a coffee maker a year--despite using vinegar or other chemicals to try and flush it out.
OK What's The Downside? Well it cost me about $70 a year for filters and another $55 every three years for the membrane. That's works out to about $88 a year. About the same as only 14 cases (42 gallons) of the cheapest bottled water I could find. Each year we use what would be equivalent to 140 cases of bottled water. Which would cost us about $838+ a year.
The osmosis process comes at a price. For each gallon produced about 3-4 gallons are wasted. In other words about a 25% efficiency is a worst case scenario. Factoring the $88 a year maintenance costs plus the penny a gallon I pay for 1,260 gallons of city water ($12.60) said to be wasted this still leaves me over well over $700 ahead. HOWEVER we don't flush the waste water down the drain. Instead into a bucket which we then use for plant watering.
Here's Some Of The Biggest Reasons Why We Do This
* It's Cheaper * Better Water * Too many bottles end up on the side of the road and in oceans
* Then there's the waste at several levels. The costs to heat plastic into bottles. Need for the electrical energy to power equipment to fill them then heat the shrink wrap used (in of itself another waste). Fossil fuels to deliver them and who knows how much to haul away empty bottles (if people bother to recycle them in the 1st place). Then energy used to shred them, remelt the plastics to be transported once again to bottlers. That's an awful lot of waste!
If there's upside to using bottled water for normal everyday use I'm not seeing it. This doesn't make sense cost wise or for our environment. Save for a bunch of folks getting rich off of it I can find no other reason.
Here's a great alternative to bottles.
It keeps water cold.. something plastic bottles can't do
All too often we complain about feeling helpless against a government that won't do enough against pollution. Yet so many refuse to make even a simple change in their own lives which could make a tremendous difference to our environment. Why is that?
NOTE TO SELF
People hate long post like these Most won't get this far. I tell myself--"you ought to really stop posting these." Yet still--maybe--just maybe one or two will.
Then again I also should tell myself to stop "telling myself" because even I don't listen to what I'm saying obviously.
Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox band travels worldwide. However we're fortunate enough to have them appear somewhat locally. They will be in Scranton, Pa. at Lackawanna College On May 13, 2017. Although there's no guarantee you'll see some of the same guest performers it's sure to be a fun night out.
Tickets are available HERE. They range from $40-$45. If you're reading this after that gig the band's entire touring schedule can be found HERE
Disclaimer
I'm not being compensated in any form. I've posted this because I found it might be worth a mention to my readers if they are interested. AND because I found them to be a truly unique band.
