And Why Aren't They Doing This?

I am generally an easily-made-content kind of person, not too much of a complainer, and therefore not too much of a renovator. That in itself is a great project to tackle. But there is something else indeed that I believe we could be doing better.

Let's face it--Michigan is kind of rainy. Percipitatious. Wet. Couldn't we do something with all this free water, these millions of droplets, icecrystals, and fogs?

My home in Vermont is seemingly blessed by similar weather. Call it lake-effect from our not-so-large-as-Lake-Michigan Lake Champlain, call it God's sense of humor, I don't care. But take note of it, and especially the logical addition to an old neighborhood farmhouse across the hill from our own.

Perhaps most of us have heard the term "rainbarrel"--I think there's even an old song that talks about one--and this old farmhouse was ingenously made to take the step one further. There's a sort of water-collecting reservoir on top of the roof that takes advantage of the sky puddles and brings rainwater, to be purified of course, into the house.

So what about our dormitories, at the most basic level? A rain collector on the top of each, a naturally available gravity system, and certainly a shower or two worth of water would be available. And perhaps it might be even healthier for us at the same time--maybe we could do away with some of the water-softeners.

You might argue that this would be impractical with our equally chilly and snow-dropping winters. I don't know. But with all the stuffy hot air trapped in my dormroom, there must be some that escapes out the top, just like our body heat dissapates without a hat--and with some strategically placed hot water pipes or heat vents running beneath the reservoir, couldn't it be enough to keep our raindrops of blessing from freezing? And wouldn't it be delightful to sing in the rain and in the shower at the same time?