Don’t Look Now, That Rain Was A Cold Front
While last night’s rain will have minimal impact on our drought, it will accomplish the task of ushering in colder air and dropping our daytime highs below 80 for the first time in many months. It may not happen today, but you just wait…
What Is The Purpose Of Water Towers?
I am serious.
While driving around rural Georgia I saw many water towers. While I can perhaps understand their need prior to modern-day plumbing, I cannot for today’s purposes. Do towns still store their water in these vessels for distribution? How do they get filled?
Explain it to me, or point me at a web site. I really would like to know.
ITP Flickr Pic
You can find a lot of things when you are not necessarily looking for them.
Apparently Cordele, like many Georgia towns, used to have a drive-in theater. I had no idea, but while driving from Cordele to Vienna to attend the Big Pig Jig I found its marquee. Even more bizarre was that I peered through the trees and could see the back of the screen.
Watching The Worst-Kept Secret In The World
Last night I watched the final four episodes of the 2007 World Series of Poker’s Main Event. Having found out the winner months ago I was watching just to see what bizarre events transpired.
At one point last night I was confused and disturbed to watch one of the participants (the eventual winner) and one of the other participant’s girlfriend square off during one hand with calls to Jesus for luck; as far as I could tell the young lady was even quoting Scripture.
Now I am far from the most religious person that you will ever meet (see also my rants against “Big Brother 8″‘s Jameka and Amber, and “Survivor: China”‘s Leslie), but doesn’t it seem odd to be calling for The Almighty’s power to win, especially at gambling? Aren’t poker winnings ill-gotten gains?
Besides, I always figured Jesus to be more of a Black Jack player….
Finding Happiness By Eliminating The Unhappiness?
It’s funny when the things that bring me happiness don’t. It doesn’t take long to find out that I love to eat and drink beer. However the affects of the two items, along with my inability to motivate myself to exercise, have contributed to the one issue that makes me the most sad — my weight.
Having said that, I am planning on being at George’s tonight to run/walk. Please don’t feed me or offer me free beer. Mine will be a short night, both in distance and post-run festivities as I am still in the process of catching up with tasks around my house. Oh the travails of the home owner whose banks go out of business while traveling for three weeks in a row.
And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – depressed
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Oasis — “Live Forever”
Website Of The Day – While trying to find information about Cordele’s old drive-in theater I stumbled upon this site — Drive-Ins.
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monthly Mileage – 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – My car
October Goal
1) Find happiness
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
I’ve always wondered about water towers as well………..
And – wasting time watching poker on TV – come on, catch up on some of the stuff you have on the DVR. I have way too much stacked up on the tivo, and soon it will be deleting the old to make room for more. But- Donkey Punch wins again at Trivia, so that was the excuse to not watch TV last night.
I know you’ve been wondering where I’ve been, (well probably not, but I’d thought I’d say that since I haven’t commented in a while) – so anyway, I’ve been way too busy at work! I hate when work gets in the way of my reading blogs & other websites at work.
Hey now, that’s not *wasting* time! Besides, those episodes were on the DVR. I managed to clear off four hours of programming in fewer than three hours. Also, I was busy fighting with iTunes (which *refuses* to see CDs I put into the CD player) while I “watched” tv.
Traffic was hell, I should have shown up for trivia. I feared that the rain would cause the building to flood.
I’ve photographed the water festival for many years heard the water guy talk about water from under a tower.
The high tanks store water, and the height and volume of the water creates pressure for the system.
Did you see the rocket at the cordele exit.
regards.ray
Yep
And the DC something that they were always going to turn into a restaurant.
We were only about 50 miles west of you in Eufaula.
How was the BBQ? and how was the festival… eat any piggy.
I didn’t get any of the competition bbq because the line to get it was too long. I did buy a bbq pork sandwich and a smoked sausage — both were delicious.
Don’t know anything about the DC thing that they were going to turn into a restaurant.
I did see that downtown Cordele was fairly empty and rundown — making it a perfect candidate for my future small-town overthrow. The only problems with their downtown is that it is near the loud railroad tracks and has a Greyhound station.
Paulie, any guesses as to the last movie shown at the Cordele Drive-In? It looks like some of the letters are still on the sign – were there enough to piece together a movie title?
I didn’t read it, but a quick Google search on “how water towers work” yielded: http://www.howstuffworks.com/water.htm
I didn’t investigate the sign in detail. I am sure that the same letters will be there if I ever go back down however.
Thanks for the link. I’ll have to carve out some time today to read it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_tower is also full of good info.
And being a supply of useless trivia- ever heard the expression, a “jerk water” town? Remember those old water tanks near railroad tracks? Think steam locomotive… the only think the town was used for was refilling the reservoir on the engine… hence a town not good for much was termed a jerk water town.
so now you know…
-FP
You mean like the water tower in Petticoat Junction? (speaking of useless trivia)
I have never heard the term “jerk water” but did see at least one sign in a small town saying that the use of “jerk brakes” was not allowed.
I’d say we need a lot more use of jerk brakes…
jerk brakes I think is a big 18 wheeler trucker term – it is when they do something to brake that makes a loud noise instead of using the regular brakes.
I’ve heard water towers are used for areas that are far from the main water source/ plant. It’s not pumped through the pipes. Instead, water just relies on existing preassure, gravity, and polarity to make it’s way into our homes. The further you are from the source, the lower the water preassure until it’s just a trickle. Towers pump water up into the high chamber. It then serves as a false source when it’s drawn down for use. That way, water plants can serve larger areas.
Also pipe sizes decrease in diameter from the tank to maintain the pressure.
I thought water towers were primarily canvas for graffiti. I think the actual truck term is “jake” brakes. Those are the ones that are loud and some stop signs have notices posted not use jake brakes.
Barb I won’t tell you what the Urban Dictionary says about jerk BREAKS…
Jake? That makes no sense at all!
It does if Jake was a jerk…