In one of the largest environmental disasters in years, a retaining wall in eastern Tennessee failed yesterday releasing 500 million gallons of water mixed with fly ash (the material left over from the combustion of coal), covering up to 400 acres up to 6 feet deep, flowing into the tributaries of the Tennessee river, and ultimately the Chattanooga water supply.

Fly or coal ash contains a number of toxic substances including mercury, arsenic and lead, causing a whole host of health issues including cancer and various neurological problems.

To give a sense of scale, the Exxon Valdez poured 11 million gallons into the ocean off the coast of Alaska in 1989, and the largest spill on record, the Gulf War oil spill in 1991, poured between 250-450 million gallons into the Persian Gulf.

A video of the aftermath below.

For such an extraordinary event, there has been little or no national press coverage, and only minimal coverage in local newspapers and blogs. It appears the media would prefer to cover Obama’s vacation in Hawaii or the ongoing Illinois governor’s scandal. I guess environmental disasters just aren’t sexy enough. Or about as sexy as years of coal de-regulation that may have contributed to this event.

We’re off again! This time to New Zealand and Australia (not the whole continent mind you, just Auckland and Sydney) for a much needed holiday. It’s my second trip to the land down under, and Chad’s first. Joey, a friend of Chad’s since college, will be joining us as well. Finally we will have someone around to take pictures too. 🙂

As usual, the plan is to post pictures and write about our travels daily, (weather and energy level permitting), so hope you will check in often. To receive updates by email, click on the “Email Udates” link to the right to subscribe to the blog.

Until next time… Chookas!

When I first started this blog I saw it as a writing exercise, flexing a noodle that was quite active in my younger days. I read and wrote voraciously as a teenager, but in the years since I have litterally limped along, pining for those days and doing little or nothing to recapture the energy that made writing almost as necessary as breathing.

As I continue to pursue interests and dreams outside of my regular work, and with the unconditional support of family and friends, that old energy seems to be returning. Stringing words together seems more natural and less a chore than it did just a year ago. While I’ve got a long way to go, I see a time not unlike the old days, when I’d spend hours laboring away at the typewriter, writing for myself, and for my friends. Believing if you can make yourself and your friends happy, the rest takes care of itself.

Over the past several months I have captured much of the writing of those years as computer files. Some of it’s good, and some well.. is frankly embarrassing, some aren’t even finished. A couple of pieces I don’t remember writing at all. But I’ll be posting them all here for your reading pleasure, or pain, depending on the piece :). I’d love to hear your feedback on each story… good or bad, what you liked, didn’t like, and maybe if it’s worth revisiting. I will be doing a bit of touch up on each story, fixing spelling/grammatical errors for the most part, but they will remain intact. The stories will be posted as PDF files, so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader or similar to view. You can download the Adobe Acrobat Reader software by clicking here.

I will start with a story called “The Journey”, which I wrote a few years ago. It’s been revised recently and is one of the stronger pieces I have written. I’ll be working my way backwards in time from here, and it’s likely to be downhill much of the time, so hang on. 🙂 Anyways, I hope you enjoy it. Download The Journey.