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Styrofoam. Who Knew? Feeling: good good Today is such a lazy day... AND I LOVE IT. It's silly to think this because i just had three days off last week but i feel like i haven't had time to relax in a while. Maybe it's just that i haven't had ME time. Me time is good. Here's what i've done today: 1. picked up the pile of clothes that was on my floor..... and moved them onto my bed. 2. ate. in my defense, i fed M too, so i get credit for that, right? 3. I watched a very interesting program on PBS about abandoned mines. Apparently there's about 48 THOUSAND abandonded mines throughout California. They talked about how people have gotten hurt or killed over the years because of these mines. One case in particular involved these three guys, friends, who thought they'd just explore some cave, have fun... two of them ended up dying from breathing in toxic fumes. The other guy survived because he was too scared to go in. It was so sad. This reporter shadowed the Department of Conservation, who has been trying to address the issue of the abandoned mines. However, the DOC said that their department has an annual budget of just $125,000. Fourty-eight thousand abandoned mines. It's way too costly and time consuming to have bulldozers come in and fill the mines with dirt. So what have they been using to "fix" the mine problem? styrofoam. i kid you not. styrofoam. They have bags of these chemicals that they mix.. pour onto a piece of tarp on the ground.. and once it's dry - voila! styrofoam. Then they cut out a shape to "fit" the mine. They lodge this giant piece of styrofoam in there.. pour a little more styrofoam on top, let it dry.. then eventually cover that up with dirt. It's pretty nuts. They showed an actual mine they were working on where they did that. The mine in that case was one that had been dug straight into the earth.. so it just looked like a huge hole in the ground. After they were done (or 'pau' as we say in Hamak0-ville), the director (or whatever you call him) at the DOC had the reporter stand on the styrofoam once it had been put into place over the hole in the mine. He had her jump up and down to show her how stable it was. I mean, the two of them were standing on it and it looked pretty solid.... BUT ARE THEY EFFING NUTS?! IT'S STYROFOAM! what if there's an earthquake. what if the styrofoam slides down. WHAT IF WHAT IF WHAT IF??! Maybe this is why i don't work at the Department of Conservation. To that i say.. IT'S STYROFOAM! The day's not over yet, oh no! I still need to a) balance my checkbook b) beat John at chess and c) put away my clothes. For real this time.
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