Tales Of Brave Ulysses

I spent an hour down the street with a neighbor, checking out his home brewing equipment. It’s a pretty damn impressive setup, a great big rig with propane burners, repurposed kegs to heat water, steep the barley, boil the wort and decant into carboys, then small kegs and a CO₂ tap to pour out two varieties at a time. My only regret – I quit drinking for Lent. 10 more days, and I am heading over to his place to get smashed. Hell, he’s got an entire bar room set up, with darts, pool, poker, TV and stereo. It’s a little pub, two doors down the street.

Mmm, beer…

Just heard an ominous discussion on the radio. No, it wasn’t about Iraq, SARS, the Ordot Landfill or any of the other things occupying my mind. It was a weather forecast, specifically for Tropical Depression 02W. Something is forming down by Pohnpei. A storm is brewing, and I always get nervous when they start tracking cyclones on the radio.

Yes, the dump was still ablaze this morning. The smoke was grayish white, a good indication that massive amounts of water are being poured onto the blaze. Firefighters estimate it will take 5 days to extinguish the fire. The governor declared the dump a disaster area last night and asked for $500,000 to be appropriated to combat the fire.

Astute readers will note that the Ordot Landfill caught on fire last October, and that it burned for three weeks at that time. That blaze cost GovGuam $750,000 to put out. Flaming landfills, burning debris sites – Guam is an ecological disaster. Hell, I didn’t even bother to post about the fire two weeks ago at a Harmon junkyard. After all, that fire only burned for three days before it was doused. It just didn’t rate notice.

I noticed that the landfill fire is quite visible from a number of vantage points on my morning commute. I will try and take some pictures tomorrow if it is still burning.

I was getting ready to hit the sack, but I thought I would check KUAM’s website to see if they have any further news on the fire.

The article posted by one of KUAM’s news reporters discusses the fire at the “largest land field on the island.” Huh? I had to read it twice before I realized she meant landfill, and not ‘land field,’ whatever that is.

Now I realize that KUAM’s news staff is generally young and inexperienced, but this is a common occurrence on the stories they submit. Seems like most of the articles posted on KUAM are rife with grammatical errors or malapropisms. I don’t think the problem is with the reporters though; if KUAM is going to publish these stories they should hire an editor to proof the reports.

I know, I know. Let he without sin cast the first stone. But they are professional journalists, I am a disgruntled misanthrope wasting far too much time on my weblog. I think my expectations are not unreasonable.

Bah, I rant for no particular reason. Good night, sleep tight.