Living Water

The sacred scriptures
are living water
flowing across the Earth
giving life to humanity.


This poem is, also, posted in the journal Writing in Snow, under the folder Awardicon Items, in my writing.com port. I am Prosperous Snow.

Water of Life

His words
is the water of life
nurturing the orchard of humanity.

Baha'u'llah,
the Glory of God,
the promised one has come.

 

This poem is, also, posted in the Journal Writing  in Snow, under the folder Awardicon Items, in my writing.com port. On writing.com I am Prosperous Snow (Neva).

Midweek Reflections on a New Filter for My Brita Pitcher

Idal (Justice), 9 Jamál (Beauty), 172 BE - Wednesday, May 6, 2015 about 9:12 am Pacific Daylight Time

I finally purchased a new filter for my Brita® pitcher. I had a checkout coupon for $2.50 off a three pack so when I went to the store on Saturday, May 2. I used the coupon when I purchased a 3-pack of new filters. The new filters I purchased on Saturday are different from the ones the company used to have. I purchased the new and improved filters which eliminates soaking the filter before putting it in the pitcher. This helps in two ways. First it is a time saver because I can put the filter in the pitcher immediately. Second it lets me use the container I was soaking the filter in for something else. In this case, making own salad dress or hotcakes because the container I used to soak the filter in was the one I also used to mix those foods. Another thing I noticed about the new filter is no black flakes in the pitcher. When I used the old filter I always noticed black flake in the water reservoir after putting water in it. Even though I have not used this new filter very long, I like it better then the old filter already.

I need to drink more water

‘Idál (Justice), 7 Kamál (Perfection), 170 BE – Wednesday, August 7, 2013 about 4:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time

I have heard that a person should drink water before they get thirsty because thirst is a sign of dehydration. The problem is that I do not think about drinking water before I am thirsty. When I do get thirsty, I usually fix myself a glass of iced water or drink a soda. I know that I should drink water or juice instead of soda, but water or juice do not always quench my thirst. Water alone does not always quench my thirst.

In order for water to quench my thirst, it has to be very cold. I do not like to drink water that is room temperature. I do not mind drinking hot tea or coffee, but water has be iced cold before I can drink enough to quench my thirst. I know this probably sounds silly, but I do know where it came from.

When I was a child growing up in Oklahoma, my Grandmother always kept cold water in the refrigerator. If she did not have cold water in the fridge then she would get an ice cube tray out of the freezer and make us ice cold water. As a child, I never drink water directly from the faucet and I think that is why I do not like to drink water at room temperature.

Water in Las Vegas

Fidál (Grace), 1 Núr (Light), 169 BE – Tuesday, May 5, 2012 about 6:00 PM

It’s Tuesday afternoon and the Las Vegas Valley Water district is considering raising the water bill again. A few months ago, they added an infrastructure charge of approximately $5.00. This brought our water bill up to about $20.00.

All right, $20.00 a month doesn’t seem like a lot. Actually, $20.00 isn’t a lot of money, I put $20.00 of gas in my car about every two weeks (it doesn’t fill the tank up; if I filled the gas tank up every month it would cost about $50.00). The problem is, that Mom and I are living on a fixed income and those $20.00 bills add up.

If the water bill goes up another $5.00 or $10.00, we’ll have to cut down on something else. I’m not sure what that would be. Right now, we do laundry everyday. If cut down to once or twice a week that just means doing more loads on those days. I suppose I could cut down to small loads instead of large loads. That would work unless I’m washing bed linen.

Oh well, I’ll figure out something. We’ve already cut down on going out to eat. I can use more coupons when it comes to buying laundry detergent. When I use the coupons, buy the smallest bottles or jugs that the coupons allows. I have a while to consider my options because the next reading of the meter is June 17, which means the next bill is due sometime in July; probably around July 18. However, the bill will arrive in my mailbox or inbox about June 23. Until then I will continue washing clothes as I normally do.

Water cold or at room temperature

Jalál (Glory), 17 ‘Izzat (Might), 167 BE – Saturday, September 24, 2011 about 4:55 PM Pacific Time

I read somewhere that a person drinks more water at room temperature then when the water is cold. This is not how it works for me. I do not enjoy drinking water at room temperature. I prefer my water cold and I will drink more water if it is cold then if it is at room temperature.

I believe I acquired this habit or perhaps I should say this taste when I was a child. My Mother and Grandmother always kept water in the refrigerator. At that time, when I drink water I always got it out of the fridge or I put ice cubes in it.

Today, I will not drink water at room temperature. Before I take a sip of water, I put ice cubes in the glass. If the ice cubes melt then I go to the refrigerator and get more ice cubes. I am not talking about one or two cubes. I fill my water container full of ice cubes before I pour the water into it. Then when I put the water in the container, I get it out of the pitcher I keep in the refrigerator. I do not like water at room temperature. If I have to drink it because I am thirsty and have no ice, I will drink it, but only as a last resort.

I changed my mind about bottled water again

Jalál (Glory), 8 Kamál (Perfection), 166 BE – Saturday, August 8, 2009 about 5:53 PM Pacific Time

I've changed my mind about bottled water again. We're going to buy it and keep it on hand. I thought it was too expensive; however, both Mom and I need to drink more water. Apparently, we won't drink water if we have to get it out of the faucet and then put ice in to cool it down. In addition, the bottled water is more convenient. The bottled water also seems to taste better at room temperature then the water out of the faucet.

This morning I took Mom in for a CAT scan of her abdomen and on the way home stopped at Food 4 Less and bought a 35 count case of 16.9 FL. OZ. of bottled water. I'll see how long this last us, then decided if I want to get two cases each time I buy it.

When I loaded the water into my car, I noticed it was heavy. It's the first time I've noticed the weight of the water, so I'm not sure if I have a problem or what. I didn't feel well today, which may be why I noticed the weight of the case of water. In addition, I usually buy a 24 count case of water instead of a 35 count case. When I arrived home, I did manage to get the water into the house, but it was a struggle.

I’ve decided to stop buying bottle water

I've decided to stop buying bottled water. It cost too much and I can't reuse the bottles. Therefore, I'm going to buy a couple of containers at one of the grocery or drug stores to put water in when we leave the house.

I use the water out of the facet to make ice so going from bottled water to tap water isn't going to be a big change. It will help us live within our budget. I put the plastic bottles in the recyclable bins. When I took the bins out a week or so ago, I noticed that there were a lot of plastic bottles in the bin. There were more plastic bottles then cans. Of course, I won't refuse a bottle of water is someone offers it to me; I'm just not going to buy it any more.

Vineger in the Mop water

Istiqlál (Independence), 5 Sultán (Sovereignty), 165 BE – Friday, January 23, 2009 about 1:04 PM Pacific Time

My grandmother put vinegar in the mop water when she mopped her linoleum floors. The house had linoleum throughout the house. Grandma never had carpet or tile in her house. When she mopped the kitchen and bathroom floor she put vinegar in the mop water.

I'm not sure why she did that, perhaps it was to make the linoleum shine or to kill germs. I never did ask her why. There were a lot of thing Grandma did that I never asked her why she did them. Now I wish I had because it would have been nice to know. My grandmother used vinegar for a lot of things. She used vinegar when she cooked. She used vinegar when she cleaned.

I remembered this last night when I went to clean the spaghetti mop head. I have to get a new mop head for that mop, but for now I'll just clean it with vineger. I don't put very much vinegar in the water because a little bit will do. I've about decided that I don't like spaghetti mops. I don't like sponge mops, they are worse then spaghetti mops. At least, a spaghetti mop cleans up better then a sponge mop.

I have to get a new mop head and I'm considering getting a new mop. I know it's a waste of a perfectly good mop handle. I'm still looking for the perfect mop to mop my floors. All right, maybe there is no such thing as the perfect mop. Perhaps what I need to do is look for the attributes I want in a mop and then find one that comes close to what I want.

I have to admit that the perfect house-cleaning item would be a robot or a house that cleans itself. I want a robot that will do everything from laundry to mopping the floor and cleaning the toilet. However, I still need to get another mop head the next time I go shopping. I also need to make a grocery list, but that is another blog entry.

I'm sleepy

Istiqlál (Independence), 5 Jamál (Beauty), 165 B.E. – Friday, May 2, 2008 about 3:24 PM PDT

I'm sleepy, throat is soar and my sinuses are draining. It isn't that I feel bad, it's just alergies. The wind has blow and gusted for the past week. I'm allergic to Oleanders and olive trees among other things.

I enjoy the wind when I don't have to go out. If I can stay home and watch the wind blow I'm happy. However, this past week I've been in it every day. It seems when I go out in the wind it is worse then when I stay in and watch it blow. I know that isn't true, but it seems that way.

This past week has been interesting with earthquakes in Reno and wild fires in California. There were some fires here in Las Vegas, but in residential areas. The were started by accident. I called in some meds for Mom and we have to go pick them up. I just looked out the window and the wind is blowing. I thought they said there would be no wind today. The sky seems cloudy this afternoon as well. This weather isn't helping me at all. It's warm outside, but the wind makes it seem cooler.

This is monsoon season in Las Vegas, but it hasn't rained. We did have water main break in front of the house. In fact there were several water main breaks in the past month. I don't know if it has anything to do with the breaks and the water district putting in new pipes, but my toilets flesh better now.

Why I Like Ice Water

Fidál (Grace), 2 Jamál (Beauty), 165 B.E. – Tuesday, April 29, 2008 about 6:06 PM PDT

I realized today why I like to drink ice water. I drink ice water all year around. I drink it in the winter when there is snow on the ground. I want my water ice cold in the spring, summer and autumn. I can't stand to drink water that doesn't have ice in it or isn't cold.

This comes from my childhood. When I was growing up, we didn't have bottled water. When I was a child, we got our drinking water out of the kitchen faucet. My grandmother and mother would put the water in a glass pitcher in the fridge. If we got water out of the facuet, we put ice in the glass before we turned the faucet on and filled the glass.

Today when I buy bottled water in the store, I buy it cold or I take it home and put it in the fridge before drinking it. If it gets warm before I finish the bottle. I put the bottle back in the fridge or I put ice in a glass and pour the water over it. I cannot stand to drink water that is room temperature or above. The water has to be cold or I can't drink it.

It's amazing sometimes how the things I learned in childhood stayed with me. I'm not sure I could change the way I drink water, even if I wanted to. I can't stand water that isn't cold. If I drink water that is room temperature, I take a couple of sips and can't drink any more. I suppose if I were thirsty I would drink an entire glass of room temperature water, but it would take me a long time.

Another Laundry Rant

Kamál (Perfection), 13 Jalal (Glory), 165 B.E. – Monday, April 21, 2008 about 7:07 PM PDT

My grandmother did laundry once a week on Saturday for six or seven people. We had clean cloths everyday and clean bed linen all the time. She never had a big pile of laundry waiting. I want to know how she did it and kept us all in clean cloths every day.

We Mom and I do two, three or four loads laundry every day and there is still one load of laundry waiting for the next day. I written about this before, I'm not sure whether I written in this blog about it, but I've written about it before. I even wrote poems about the endless loads of laundry. I'm sure my grandmother must have had some sort of laundry secret, which she didn't tell me. I wish I knew what it was because I'm tired of the endless loads of dirty laundry.

All right, I have to admit that one day last week we didn't do laundry. We didn't do laundry because a water main busted under the street in front of our house. The water was turned off on our side of the block all day, so we couldn't do laundry or anything else that used water. They finally got it fixed and we now have water to do the endlessly cloning basket of dirty laundry.

Ice Water on a Cold Day

16 Qawl 164 B.E. - Friday, December 7, 2007 about 6:56 PM PST

I like my water cold, even on a cold day I like cold water. If it's not cold I put ice cubes in it. It doesn't matter that cold water makes me shiver, I still want my water cold. I like to drink it either cold from the refrigerator or I want ice cubes in it.

Today the electricity went off. The wind kick the power all over the neighborhood. Now you would think that I'd be worried about the meat in the freezer or the left overs in fridge itself. Not me, I worried that the ice cubes would melt. Thinking about it, it sounds silly, but that's what I worried about. I didn't open the fridge doors because I didn't want anything to defrost or spoil.

The power didn't stay off very long. Nothing in the fridge or the freezer spoiled or defrosted. Tomorrow I think I'll make Hobo Stew or Soup with the leftover in the fridge. Then I'll check the leftover in the freezer to see how they are. The should be alright, but I'm going to have to use them up before Christmas or New Year's.

The leftovers in the freezer haven't been there very long, but I don't want them going into the New Year. My grandmother always made sure she fixed all her leftovers before New Year's Day. If we had turkey or ham leftover from Thanksgiving or Christmas, she always fixed it before New Year's Day. Then on New Year's day we'd have black eyed peas with either turkey or ham.

I think I picked up the habit of drinking ice water on a cold day from my grandmother. When we had water with our meals, we had ice water whether it was winter or summer. She always put a few ice cubes in glasses. Of course she always got her drinking water from the kitchen faucet, so perhaps the ice made the water taste better.

Another thing my grandmother always had at meal time was a prayer or blessing. She called it saying grace (that sounds like a good title for a poem). My grandfather always said the blessing when he eat with us, if he was at work when we eat then grandma said grace.