Governor Brown, this blog post is dedicated to you:

If you see me in this vineyard tomorrow morning, only five minutes from my home, with my bar of soap and towel, know that this is where I’ll be taking my showers from now on.

My husband went out and about yesterday, to get coffee, something to eat, and then off to the gym. He likes to photograph something wine country related each morning for an Instagram post.  This is what he posted and I immediately went ballistic, when I saw it on Facebook.

Governor Brown, you need to rethink your proclamation. (I wanted to write that “you need to have your head examined,” but my great grandfather Governor William T. Haines has channeled to me that I should have more respect.)

You tell citizens of California to cut water usage, but businesses can just continue on with business as usual. Quoting Alternet: One group not facing restrictions under the new rules is big agriculture, which uses about 80 percent of California’s water. 

I’ve been taking five or less minute showers since the Summer of Love. When we had a house flood last July, the town of Windsor – when I called to get a reduction in our water bill, due to the deluge in our upstairs bathroom told me, “Your house is way under what a house your size uses.

Keep in mind, when measuring how much water was lost, it was 66 bathtubs full of water.

This is calculated from the water bill for what is normal for us, and what spiked on that day (2,997 gallons) divided by how much water it takes to fill a bath tub (45 gallons), and you come up with 66.666666666 bathtubs full of water just thrown into a small room.

So now, a house that barely uses water is supported to cut back even more, while businesses are allowed to waste as they see fit?

What is wrong with this picture?

• It just rained on Sunday, more rain was due on Monday; but, it was just cold and cloudy with dark clouds all day.
  • Should this land have been irrigated yesterday, on Monday?
  • Or, should some vineyard manager have been doing his job and turning off the switch for the day?
• This vineyard is using overhead irrigation, instead of drip, in the morning.
  • The afternoon sun will evaporate a lot of it.
    • If the sun does come out today.
    • But, what about all the other days, when the sun DOES come out and evaporates a good portion of it?
  • Overhead irrigation waters everything, including between the rows, encouraging roots to stay on the surface.
    • This doesn’t force the roots to go deeply into the soil to find a water table.
    • Wasted!

One October, when living in Maine, we had a hurricane. We lost power, which means that our well and electricity were out… for 10 long days. I heated the house with a wood stove, so I could cook and we kept warm, living by candle light. But, what about baths? I went down to the pond and bathed in spring fed, 50 degree water.

Don’t be surprised, Governor Brown if you see me on Arata Lane in Windsor with a bar of soap and lathering up in this vineyard. The only way to get over this waste of water is to get under it and prove a point.

From Daryl Cagle, a brilliant cartoonist… Visit his site at cagle.com for more spot on political humor.