here's the story.
after doing some research on the best bottled water i came up with some interesting and disturbing facts. i have decided now that all this bottled water is a big joke and i have been a foolish consumer who has wasted alot of money on water that i thought was safe. i'm now just going to buy a good filter like pur 3 and drink and carry my own home brew with me.
dasani and aquafina are the biggest jokes of all. pepsi and coca-cola are deceiving the public in a big way. it's crazy.

"Aquafina® bottles, which picture beautiful stylized mountains on the label, do not mention that the water is derived from municipal tap water. The water reportedly is treated tap water taken from 11 different city and town water supplies across the nation. [66] Pepsi executives defend the practice. In a 1997 report, "Pepsi spokesman Larry Jabbonsky made no apologies for the Aquafina label or advertising and said Pepsi isn't hiding anything. He said anyone can find out the true source of Aquafina by calling the 800 number on the bottle top."

Spring Water

According to the current federal food regulations, spring water is potable water that comes from any underground source but not from a public community water supply. The spring water collected and bottled is considered natural water and must have all the same properties and be of the same composition and quality as the water underground. Normally, spring water is expected to contain fewer than 500 parts per million (ppm) of total dissolved solids (minerals).
Mineral Water

Respects the same definition as spring water except that it is normally expected to contain more than 500 ppm of dissolved solids.
Drinking Water

Bottled water that has been produced by distillation, deionisation or reverse osmosis. The water can come from a spring, or a public community water supply. Other suitable terms for bottled water produced by one of the above processes include “distilled water,” “deionised water,” and “reverse osmosis water.” These waters have no added minerals.

Coca-Cola realized it couldn't fight the trend towards water forever, so it came up with its own water brand. But instead of bottling spring water, Coca-Cola decided to bottle tap water. That's right: the very same water you get out of your kitchen faucet. Only Coca-Cola purified the water and then added in a minute amount of minerals. They then sold the water at enormous markups: as much as 300,000% (not a typo) over the original price for the water. That's the Coca-Cola way, it seems: take a bunch of really cheap ingredients, slap on a pretty label, and push it to the public at extraordinary markups. Heck, it worked for soft drinks, why not water, too?
Unfortunately, this process of purifying the water turns out to be less than ideal, in this case at least, since the Dasani water was found to be contaminated with bromate. Coca-Cola's Dasani brand of bottled water was found to have illegally high levels of bromate, a cancer-causing chemical.

FDA's rules completely exempt 60-70 percent of the bottled water sold in the United States from the agency's bottled water standards, because FDA says its rules do not apply to water packaged and sold within the same state. Nearly 40 states say they do regulate such waters (generally with few or no resources dedicated to policing this); therefore, about one out of five states do not. Even when bottled waters are covered by FDA's specific bottled water standards, those rules are weaker in many ways than EPA rules that apply to big city tap water.

there are major regulatory gaps in the fda's bottled water standards.

http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/bw/exesum.asp

this is just the tip of the iceburg i'm sure.

listen to preview part 2
"avalanche"http://stream.qtv.apple.com/qtv/toolshed/asthmatickitty/sufjan_avalanche_myll82_ref.mov

small dog aka tobysue was parading giant stick up and down the beach today

and the great blue heron paid me a visit this morning



ok i have to go to work now.
mustn't be late
mustn't be late...........
it takes me 7 minutes to get to work.

this is john's office


this is regular office guy's office

blessed are the ethical, for they shall inherit a sustainable earth

ralph lauren, long recognized as a leader in fashion, is now also a leader in compassion after announcing a precedent-setting decision to no longer use fur in any of his apparel or home collections, based purely on ethical grounds.

whole foods announced on june 15, 2006, that it has banned the sale of live lobsters and soft-shell crabs from its stores because of concern for the animals’ welfare.
in announcing whole foods’ decision, ceo john mackey said, “we place as much emphasis on the importance of humane treatment and quality of life for all animals as we do on the expectations for quality and flavor.”
whole foods market goes beyond what the u.s. department of agriculture requires for labeling meat or poultry as "natural" by strictly monitoring how the animals are raised and what the animals are fed. our standards ensure that the meat and poultry we sell are:
raised without added hormones or antibiotics.
Never fed animal by-products.
raised by farmers and ranchers who care about the animals and the environment in which they live.
closely monitored by whole foods market from the farm to our stores to ensure compliance with our strict animal welfare and food safety quality standards.
animal compassionate standards
additional species-specific animal compassionate standards, which require environments and conditions that support the animal's physical, emotional, and behavioral needs, are currently being developed. producers who successfully meet these voluntary standards will be able to label their products with the special "animal compassionate" designation.
learn more about their farm animal and meat quality standards, which encompass both sets of standards.

during the past 2 months we have been slowly and painfully trying to repair the damage to eleanor rigby due to her former owner's neglect.

we hauled her out into a work yard.
for weeks straight we sanded and grinded her huge bottom which was being eaten away by blisters that had formed in her gelcoat.
everyday we learned from our mistakes.
everyday we learned something new.
once we had the crap ground off her bottom we needed to let it dry out completely. due to poor maintenance moisture had saturated the hull.
we decided to tent her bottom and with a dehumidifer speed up the drying process. then we decided that was a stupid idea so the next day we tore it off.

she's looking pretty good now though.
the bottom has dried in all this heat.
now we have to put the bottom back on.
2 coats of fiberglass
5 coats of barrier coating
2 coats of bottom paint
and still there are many other areas on her that need repair.
i would list them but it wouldn't make any sense to anyone who doesn't have a sailboat. well, these have to be replaced: stuffing box, prop shaft, 20 sea cocks and thru hulls, engine mounts, bob stay, and some others, some of which i don't know that much about. john is in charge of all this and i try to understand it as much as i can. all i can do is try to learn more and help him with all the repairs. we seem to work well as a team and he is the team leader. i try to keep him from getting discouraged and he teaches me alot. we certainly know alot more than we did 2 months ago.
eleanor rigby will be in good shape when we are done with her problems.
i love this boat.
i'm beginning to understand why people get so attached to their big old boats. they are like a part of you and you want to treat them well and with dignity.
it's strange.

there must be some way out of here
said the joker to the thief

imagine an immortal animal
evolution so fashioned his glands
that his parts replace themselves as soon as they cease to function
he is invulnerable to cancer and all forms of viral, microbial, bacterial infection
he exists in total harmony with his environment
he has no reason to die
man's unique brain gives him the tools to participate directly, consciously, in his own evolution
through his concern for survival he has learned to screen himself from many of the natural agents of the selection process
biological sciences are only a few generations short of being able to interfere consciously with genetics and to produce eternal youth.
survival of the fittest will play the major role in mankind's evolution as disease and illness will have eliminated the weak
food will become only a source of much needed particular nutrients therefore eliminating much of the diseases and illnesses that plague mankind now and cause early death, early death being under the age of 130 yrs
pollutants and toxins will be non existent and will no longer be a constant threat to physical and mental health and longevity.
spirtuality, compassion and peaceful nations will create an environment of holistic well being for all mankind.
and the earth will flourish.

the rare seaweed water retriever

she swims back to shore with her mouth clenched tightly around the prized sargassum

fighting every wave like a true water retriever
what a great dog she is
she's delirious
she's crazy
she's a seaweed water retriever gone wild.
what more could a seaweed water retriever ask for on such a beautiful day!

this dog really loves her seaweed.
splash
splash

the sargassum seaweed comes from the sargasso sea.

[the sargasso sea is part of the north atlantic ocean, lying roughly between the west Indies and the azores. here, the heart of the bermuda triangle is covered by the strangest and most notorious sea on the planet -the sargasso sea so named because there is a kind of seaweed which lazily floats over its entire expanse called sargassum. catching sight of these huge mats of seaweed have always marked the perimeter of this peculiar sea. columbus himself made note of it. thinking land was nearby, he fathomed the sea, only to find no bottom. the bottom is, in fact, miles below on the nares abyssal plain.] the 2,000,000-square-mile ellipse-shaped sea's special properties are a result of it lying in the center of a huge oval of relatively still waters bounded by ocean currents, including the gulf stream, which circle it clockwise, sort of like the eye of a very huge, very, very slow, permanent hurricane. Its warm waters are exceptionally clear and blue, and filled with seaweed. early navigators becalmed in the sea's still waters mistakenly believed their ships were tangled in the seaweed. They named the sea "sargaco", the portuguese word for grape, after the seaweed's bulbous floats.
there is a strong connection between the sargasso sea and the bermuda triangle phenomena but much of the strange occurances and disappearances have yet to be understood.

"the sargasso sea must remain an enigma of this globe, for the forces that have created it have created a masterpiece of visible nonconformity, which may only be the tip of the iceberg for invisible disharmony in its elements. currents alone cannot explain it."

many small marine animals, including tiny crabs, shrimp and octopuses, live on and among the sargassum. deeply connected to the weeds, many would sink and perish if they lost their grip.
the various sea turtles that nest along the hutchinson island beaches here have come all the way from the sargasso sea where they normally reside due to the incredible food sources it provides them. once they lay their eggs they swim back to that same area to live, eat and mate. after a couple of years they will return again to nest to the same beach. the theory on how sea turtles navigate suggests that they can detect both the angle and intensity of the earth's magnetic field. when their eggs hatch here on the treasure coast, the hatchings immediately start to swim out to sea and somehow know exactly how to locate the sargasso sea where they will live and grow to maturity. they are several years old before they will make the same trip back to the same shores as their parents to lay their eggs.

how facinating and simply amazing. biologists have yet to discover the diversity in these waters. we still have alot to learn.

jules verne wrote about the sargasso sea in "twenty thousand leagues under the sea."

yikes!

sargassum
weed of deceit
drifts in thick masses
provides an environment for
specialized marine life
angler fish


sargassum crab
sargassum shrimp


it's cool how this sargassum is floating all around now just in time for sea turtle nesting season. this is their food source. i found these little shrimps in the wet masses of sargassum.
at least i know now what's living in all this seaweed. amazing.

brown seaweed is everywhere today.

i'm not sure why. tomorrow i'll pay a visit to the oceanographic center and ask.
swimming in this underwater forest is a little strange. it gets in your mouth. i ate some but i wouldn't really recommend it. it wasn't very tasty.

tobysue likes to swim out, dive under the water, grab a mouthful of seaweed, swim back to shore and munch on it. i tried to get a picture of her but i was laughing too much and missed it. when she was swimming around me she kicked me in the face and my snorkle fell off my mask. i couldn't find anywhere in the middle of that seaweed forest. that is the 3rd snorkle i have lost.
i'm so easily amused.

i didn't almost cut my hair
but i did decide to paint it with some stuff that turned it reddish and blondish.
i have no idea what it looked like since i don't have a mirror to see the back so i took a picture. that works.
i think i look like sideshow bob. maybe i should go get some more canvas and stop experimenting with permanent hair paint.

early this morning i listened this http://stream.qtv.apple.com/qtv/toolshed/asthmatickitty/sufjan_avalanche_xkp991_ref.mov a sample of his next album. i would give up my first born to see this man in concert.
the heavens seem to open up when this music is playing. corny, oh yes but what the heck. when i die would someone please remember to play this album as you dump my sorry ashes in the caribbean sea. on the illinois album, chicago is my favorite. i will make it worth your while somehow in my next life. i'm not sure how but i'll figure it out when i get there.
thank you.
when the revenant came down we couldn't imagine what it was
in the spirit of three stars the alien thing that took its form
then to lebanon oh, god the flashing at night, the sirens grow and grow
oh, history involved itself mysterious shade that took its form
or what it was, incarnation
three stars delivering signs and dusting from their eyes

i'm going to blockbusters today to look for "what the bleep do we know"

yes, today is a new day. time to forget the absurdities of the past.
i've heard some really funny and/or strange things this week.
one was a comment that josh made about his sister. i guess it was a compliment of sorts. that's all i can say.
the other was a story that my neighbor, jerry, told me about a guy he used to be friends with in chicago. this guy was apparently a very sick alcoholic and jerry use to visit him on occasion. he told jerry that he probably wasn't going to live much longer and gave jerry instructions to cremate him and gave jerry his bank card. so jerry goes to visit him one day and the guy was dead on the sofa. jerry took his pulse, decided he was really dead and goes home to get his camera. jerry took several pictures of his dead friend on the sofa then he called the police. after the cremation jerry puts his friend's ashes in a nice cardboard box, sits the box next to a bottle of whiskey and takes another picture to remember him by.
jerry showed me the pictures of the dead friend on the sofa and the box of ashes with the whiskey bottle.
it was very strange. jerry is strange though.



my boss apologized to me for being such an ass. he is under alot of stress i know. i sort of feel bad for him. not many people are very nice to him these days because of the crap going down at the anchorage.
so, i made him a big gooey chocolate cake and gave him one of my photos for his birthday which he spent alone in his apt worrying about stuff.
john is in philly again, this time for tech rep meetings. oh boy i bet he is having fun. well at least he gets to see some of his old friends. no doubt they are having several bitch and moan sessions at the hotel bar. john looks odd now when he has to wear real clothes, shoes, long pants and such. he'll be glad to get back home i know. i can't wait til he can leave that job.
eleanor rigby is coming along. i think the end of the work on her is actually within sight now. just a couple more weeks i hope. maybe 4.
we have started having regular sunday night communal dinners together with the people in our apt. house. it's a good thing to be friends with the people who live so close to you. donna couldn't make it bc she and her friend spent all day sunday at the beach drinking too much so they came home and went to bed. mary is quite a character. at first i didn't know if i could handle being around her but i have grown to like her more and more. she is a widow a little older than me. i was suprised to know her age, i thought she was much older. she loves red and her apt is insanely decorated, very professionally like something in a house beautiful magazine. she like to iron jerry's shirts for him. i take her grocery shopping sometimes bc she does not have a car. she's a funny woman who drinks too much, dresses very well, uses alot of profanity but yet at times is very classy. i think she makes up many of the stories she tells at dinner. after a while though you can't help but like her.
the other neighbor, donna, has alot of baggage as well. she is divorced, maybe 40ish and has a roommate now. she used to have a red neck boyfriend who was a true ass and thought he was a real ladies man but really he was just a loud mouthed drunk most of the time. she got rid of him. we didn't like him at all.
jerry is still jerry. a dear man in his late 30's looking for a good woman. he has strange habits that would drive anyone crazy. i hope he finds someone who will put up with him.
so that is our little group. we all know each other's business and make it a point to chat daily, share gossip and help each other.
it's pretty good. i will miss them when we move to the boat.

i like these

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.
Henry David Thoreau

However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do want society.
Henry David Thoreau

That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
Henry David Thoreau

tropical depression #1(upgraded now to tropical storm alberto) is expected to come our way tomorrow. we really need the rain it might bring. the wind shouldn't be too bad.









john was tired and tried to take a beach nap but as usual i am forced to annoy him.

tossing old dead shrimp on him seemed like an amusing thing to do.

"how i got screamed at by my boss"
or
"let's discuss this rationally"

i don't agree with the 2 new itemized forms written by the city that i am supposed to give to all the tenants for them to read and sign. it is misleading and possibly deceiving regarding the hurricane season. it describes a very detailed plan of how they are supposed to properly secure their boats if a hurricane warning is issued for our county and in some sort of vague mumbo jumbo full of grammatical errors it also insinuates that they will have to evacuate the anchorage as soon as the hurricane warning is issued. it is contradictory and since most people don't really read what they sign i know that it is going to cause problems.
people who assume they can stay put may well be told that they have to evacuate and will have no place to go at the last minute.
so.. this is how i get into trouble.
i can't keep my mouth shut.
i can't just pretend that it doesn't matter.
i tell him that it is misleading and he blows up in my face. his face turns red and he starts shouting at me and waving his arms and pointing his finger. he's yelling right out in front of everyone saying "well you rewrite it ruth just the way you think it should be and we'll have the whole thing reprinted just for you!!"
oh boy.. well i knew he had a short fuse but really i didn't expect that.
i try to understand him.
i try to get along with him but he doesn't accept friendship easily. it's sort of sad actually. i'm not sure what he's afraid of.
let's sit down and discuss this would have been alot more mature and certainly more appropriate.
i have decided to let it go. let it go..
i will however ask these people to read the contracts carefully before they sign it.
i don't think i can fight the city without losing my job and i want to hold on to this job for a while anyway.
it's really tough for some one like me to keep my mouth shut.
it's not right to deceive people like that.
for much of my life and in the majority of the jobs i have had i have been very fortunate to be in the company of rational people who are easy to work with. i really can't remember ever being screamed at or verbally attacked like that. it freaked me out. i don't want to have to work with someone that makes me feel like i have to walk on eggshells being careful of everything i say.
i guess i just need to not get so involved in these things but i really don't like being that way.
well.. i'll get over it. in the meantime though i still have to be who i am.
i try to see both sides of an issue but i still believe it's important to treat people with dignity and kindness.

"a certain amount of opposition is a great help to man. kites rise against, not with, the wind."

i heard from josh twice yesterday. the 1st time he was on the cape may/lewes ferry crossing the delaware bay heading for assateague island national seashore park. i called him to remind him to please put a little card in his wallet with my name and ph# as an emergency contact in case he was in an accident or something. it's a mom thing. i also left him a message not to go swimming in the ocean out there all by himself. the rip currents are nasty. i know from last year's almost drowning experience. plus laura called the other day and told me that she almost drowned after being caught in a rip current up in fernandino beach. it terrified her. he could disappear and no one would know. again it's a mom thing. the 2nd time he called bc the lantern i gave him wouldn't work. well, he has a flashlight, that will have to do. he was calling from assateague and getting ready to get some provisions for the 4 mile hike out to the primitive camp on the island. i hope he took enough drinking water. there is nothing out there, maybe pit toilets i think but no water. i stayed there once many many years ago in the early 70's. we camped next to the beach and saw wild horses. i remember the mosquitoes were the worst i had ever experienced.
at first i though this solo trip of josh's might seem a bit lonely but really it's very cool. i have met many many people now who sail and travel solo on their boats to far away islands and countries and although i'm sure they would enjoy some company they seem quite content to travel alone. it doesn't seem to faze them in the least to take off for weeks alone in the ocean. one thing i know for sure is that you wind up talking to yourself alot.
josh said that no one else had applied for a back country park pass so he will be the only soul out there on the beach for 2 days. how cool is that? he doesn't even have to bother putting any clothes on. reminds me of the movie "castaway" with tom hanks. maybe josh will find a driftwood friend to talk to.
life is good.

these pirate tattoos are not coming off. i thought they would wash off but now i've been told that they stay on for weeks. i have had to explain why i have one to several people now. actually i'm starting to like this tattoo.




maybe i should get a real one.







i had to explain the tattoo to the lady at the red cross blood mobile this morning when i was donating blood. i don't think she understood about the pirate party. she gave me a weird look. they ask alot of strange questions when you donate blood. the strangest one is "have you ever had sex with a man who has had sex with another man". i told them i didn't really know since i don't think the man would actually tell you that. i don't know.

a great pirate party weekend

a treasure map lead us up and down the beach.
the treasure was finally discovered
a bottle of rum, of course.

i rode with kelly in her beautiful boat. i drove and she hauled the sails.
captain happy at the helm
captain happy needed a nap
everyone arriving at the island by dinghy
chris has a cool hat.
i think tim is already half shot. he's a chef at a local restaurant so he brought all the food for a clambake.

tim and jen arriving on this great old motor sailor. i think it looks like a tug boat.
i don't what these guys are doing to gil. gil is a true sailor and somewhat of a perfectionist. he has sailed solo to some really cool places down in central america. he built his own dinghy and he used to teach at a survival school.

milt, teri and chris.

milt and teri have lived on their boat for many many years. they lived in the bahamas for a while.

after everyone arrived we made our way down the lagoon side of the island to cross over the dunes to the beachside for the treasure hunt.


we actually had this place all to ourselves. this is florida at it's finest.
these guys are trying to make a giant dining table out of a piece of old plywood that washed up on the beach.
gil and tim again.
i'm not sure what tim is trying to do with gil.
nice clambake on our dining table. tim even brought a linen tablecloth. very classy.
jen can balance a plate of food on her head.
this is classic.
billy aka billy bones.
no one could look more like a pirate than billy.
billy figured out a way to eat, drink beer and stay cool.

john and i went down the beach early this morning at 7am. we walked along the surf and looked for new sea turtle tracks. we found a new big nest back by the dunes. along the way we picked up trash. we went back to the little beach concession stand and got toasted bagels and apple juice which we took down to the beach and ate and talked about stuff.
we should do that every morning.
it's very nice.
i took him to the airport to fly to philly to help josh fix up his truck a little before he leaves. i sent along some birthday presents for josh's 24th next week.
i'm getting ready for tomorrow's pirate sailing regatta to peck lake which isn't really a lake but a lagoon off of the ocean. i'm making pirate headscarves to go with the eye patches and fake tatoos. this is going to be really silly. i laugh just thinking about it. we'll leave early tomorrow morning and come back sunday.
tobysue is also coming.

a little bit cloudy and rainy this morning, a welcome change just for a little while. we saw a water spout but i didn't get a picture of it in time. they dissipate quickly. i might put a cot out here for josh to sleep on when he comes down.
being outside so much of the time makes me acutely aware of the weather. i don't like being indoors anymore. i don't like to be in air conditioned closed up places with all the windows closed.

this guy was cleaning himself this morning. big blue herons are so stately although they have a goofy sort of gait. i wish he would come over on my deck for a visit sometime.