We Take It For Granted....

I enjoy my first-of-the-day walk with Fenway....it's quiet outside, not too much traffic, a few other walkers. We usually make it out the door about 6:45 or so. As we go east we have to wait for the automatic sprinkler to spray the ECP corner garden near the gazebo so we don't catch the last of the spray on the sidewalk. A few seconds pause and we are on our way again.

Today we continued straight east toward Lake Michigan, about four blocks away. A short walk along the top of the bluff and then we head back west toward ECP for Fen's breakfast and my first cup of coffee. There are some nice houses and gardens in the few blocks of our route. Historically the east side of Milwaukee has some of the larger homes lovely and interesting architecture. As I passed close to one house I thought maybe a water pipe was broken because water was streaming down the driveway and into the gutter at the curb.

As I got closer I realized that it was another sprinkler system aimed at their yard and the lovely flowering bushes along the driveway.

Goodness knows I enjoy walking along and noticing everyone's colorful blooms this time of year. I know that in only a few more weeks these bright spots will be replaced with a fall palette and then the white-grey of winter. We never had an automatic sprinkler system in any of the houses we owned. We watered the flowers with our hose and had one of those automatic go-back-and-forth-and-move-it-periodically sprinklers for the lawns. (The kind the kids used to love to jump and run through in their swim suits when they were young.)

I don't envy my neighbors, or fault them in any way. But just for a brief moment, watching that clean water run into the street and down the gutter Jackson, Mississippi flashed in my mind. Areas in our Country and around the world suffering crippling, deadly and long lasting droughts made me look at the water in a different way. 

We take it for granted....turn on the taps or set the timer and the water comes. I wonder how much longer before my city's infrastructure begins to fail or the Midwest climate changes so much that we need to carefully monitor every drop. Probably sooner rather than later.....and most likely after I'm dead.