From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 05/04/00-01:12:33 AM Z
On Wed, 3 May 2000, Linda Phillips wrote:
> As a preface, I'd like to say, regardless of what Judy may say, there ARE
> some good reasons for living in the country. But the openmindedness of the
I tell you in confidence, Linda, I have one really good reason for not --
I'd starve to death because I don't drive a car. (Of course a *little*
starvation would be good for me, but not total.) Nevertheless, some of my
best friends live in the country... I swear.
> populace ain't one of them. If you're somebody that spends a lot of time in
> the dark in your basement (and you're not reloading shells for your 22-250),
> you're thought of as some kind of weirdo in these parts. IF people get the
> idea that chemistry may be a part of your life AND the notion that some of
> this chemistry might leak out into the soil AND you want to sell your home
> AND somebody wants to make an issue of it, well the cleanup might be rather
> expensive.
Actually neighbors in a highrise or even row houses can be just as nutsoid
as in any country hamlet, it's just that the oversight possible is a bit
less total. Yesterday in fact I heard a tale of someone beat up by his
paranoid neighbor who imagined his TV was too loud.
However, if I lived in the country and hadn't starved to death, I might
try one of two possible approaches to the waste water problem. One, my
cousin built his own whatchamacallit, septic tank. Instructions were
apparently forthcoming from various sources. I seem to recall something
about an impervious lining, so nothing seeped into the ground. He hired a
bulldozer to dig the hole. Out there in God's country you could probably
hire a bulldozer cheaper than a snowmobile -- so a dedicated septic tank
just for bad things to run into might be possible.
Simpler would be get two big barrels and dump your trays into one at a
time. When first one is full, leave it to settle/evaporate & fill the
next. I found by the way, that with proper exposure all the dichromate
comes out of the print in the first 10 minutes, after that, however long
your "development" is, it's only pigment in gum dissolving away. During
the time I was still bent on neutralizing the dichromate, I found that one
"first wash" tray could be used for many prints. Water got pretty dark,
but the print was soon removed, so no harm done to it. When left
undisturbed, it tended to settle into sludge on the bottom of the tray
with the upper "water" relatively clear. That could be decanted off and
used to start the next batch, while the sludge got poured into the sludge
container.
Judy, Katharine Thayer, Sarah, you live in cities where anything
> short of mass murder is ignored.
You'd be surprised ! Just try not pooper scooping around here in DAYLIGHT
for instance (tho at night folks do omit this nicety all too often). Worse
yet, put a scratch on someone's car. Or just let your car alarm go off
and keep at it for a few hours. You're liable to return and find only a
few bits of fender. (Unless you're a judge in which case the local police
will arrive to stand guard -- but I digress.)
> ...Dump all you want, I guess. But
> country-dwellers shouldn't become so complacent that they forget that some
> 30K/year geek with a polyester shirt and a pocket protector can make life
> miserable should a change in politics make pollution an issue.
Wasn't there some movie about 15 years ago, where the geek was the bad
guy? Maybe you could call the geek anonymously & ask if there is some kind
of equipment within an affordable price range to solve the problem.
Meanwhile, however, speaking of country pollution -- what I keep hearing
about on the radio are those PIG LAGOONS !!!
Judy
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