today

I went to a green drinks this evening, with my “new” favorite co-worker (also about to leave the agency, not her choice. Sweet monkey jesus, being my friend must be a sure sign of a career about to take a nose dive). It was fun, I was the first one to ask a question. The topic was water issues in chicago, and I asked what I thought was a really straight forward question: How much stormwater does the chicago sewer system handle (answer, 36″ / year), how much water do we pull out of lake michigan (answer 1.5 billion(?) gallons/year) and how much water gets pulled from lake michigan to “flush” the chicago river (answer unknown). They were unable to provide the answers in identical units as well. But it was an overall interesting talk. I didn’t learn much from it, but it was interesting to hear the issues for another time. Much the same information, in less detail, as one of my chicago conservation corps trainings.

Margo and Joan (a couple of neighbors of mine, whom I had met at prior green drinks, but not realized they lived so close). Sweet people. And the first thing they said was “Oh, you wanted to know apples and apples, and they gave you apples and oranges.” I like them. They’re good people. They gave me a ride home (in an SUV). Fun stuff.