The news lies

Yesterday I read an article that told us the water restrictions have been loosened a bit. The open burn ban has been suspended and people can water their lawns one day a week, but that may go away if "the the dry weather continues".

Um, where have people *been* this year that they think it's "dry"? Since softball started back at the end of February, we've been dealing with the rain. Skills Day was delayed because of wet fields, practices have been continually rescheduled or cancelled because of the rain, and last weekend's opening ceremonies and carnival were cold, windy, and drizzly. At least 3 practices have only happened because the rain held off until the practice was over. It's been anything but dry.

The reports all show that our water supplies are coming up nicely, so why are they still all gloom and doom about it? I think it's because the water company announced that because we had done such a wonderful job of conserving water last year, they hadn't made as much money as they need and their bond rating would go down. As a reward for our civic-minded responsible water usage, they are increasing everyone's bill by almost 20%. Yahoo. By making people think we're still in dire danger of going thirsty, they justify the price increase. By letting people water lawns, people use more water and the water utility gets more money.

It's all a big conspiracy, man.