PORCH PONDERINGS

Perfect Last of Summer Day

So I'm sitting upstairs by my desk on a coolish last of summer day. The sun is bright, the sky is blue, the wind is a mild breeze. Just a perfect day.

I have a busy night ahead. I have to create two invoices, for each of my little jobs. One for the local paper and one for the refuse committee that I serve. So that should take me about an hour. Then I have to submit my stories for the local paper for next week. But just as I typed this, I now remember the deadline was late Thursday because of the holiday. Well, rats.

I did have to print a retraction of a story from last week. That did make the deadline. I printed something about our water rates rising and how we now should be more mindful of our water usage. Which when you think about this, water usage should always be on your mind. But no...the city called the paper and wanted a retraction of what I wrote. They were mainly upset about the recommendation of conservation. Hmm. Weird, but okay. So I dutifully called and talked to the lady who wrote the VERY confusing letter about the water rates. This letter has everyone in town all worked up. She explained to me about the difference in the charges. And then I had to digest this, think about it, then write a correction. And then I marched down to the city offices to show her what I wrote.

"Is this alright?" She approved, as did the city works director, who heard our conversation and inserted himself into it.

So here's the retraction:

Water rates - a correction from Tanya at the city office.

Seems our water bill is based on two factors, our base rate and our usage rate. The base rate is increasing. The usage rate is not increasing.


Huh. Why didn't that go into her first letter? Writing. Making things clear for others to understand. Seems pretty basic to me.
Base rate depends on the size of your water meter. Usage rate is based on how much water goes through that meter.
Her letter to all those in the city went into EDUs and meter sizes and how much you may pay versus how much you do pay, versus how much you will pay in the future...yada yada yada. A full page full of figures and charts and gobbledegook no one understands. And she admitted as much.

Just thinking about that makes my head hurt.