Stony Brook loves to water its plants!

Today has been a cold, miserable, rainy October day. The best I can say is that it at least feels seasonable, unlike the heat wave that we’ve had for most of the past couple of weeks. Still, it’s cold, wet, and disgusting outside. One would think that the last thing you would ever conceivably need to do on a day like this is to water your lawn. Especially since it’s already late October and everything is going to freeze over pretty soon anyway, right?

Wrong!

At around one o’clock in the afternoon today I got out of work and noticed that the sprinkler systems outside the Wang Center were very much operational and in action, making sure that those plants outside our quadrillion-dollar (an actual number and definitely not exaggerated) jewel of an Asian Studies center remained well hydrated. This image is not one you’re likely to see on any of the brochures for the University.

I wasn’t even the slightest bit surprised by this, just amused. I know it’s really not funny that the campus is wasting that much water without flinching but I couldn’t help but start laughing. This isn’t an isolated incident, either. For example, I have personally witnessed the sprinklers in Kelly Quad come on in mid-winter, only to create a giant ice sheet over the middle of the quad.  The schizophrenic sprinkler systems are just another one of the funny absurdities at Stony Brook University. Will they ever get them fixed? I hope for the sake of conservation they do, but I’m not holding my breath.

The possibility of switching the sprinkler system to one that would be sensitive to water levels or something of that nature has been discussed, but actually getting a system like that implemented is another matter. Maybe somebody that knows more about the situation can comment and let me know what the deal is with that.

By the way, there’s a drought in the South. Just thought I’d add that in.
 
BTW: If you’re at all confused by yesterday’s post, it was inspired by this. In case there was any doubt, I’m not actually a Rockies fan. However, I would actually like them to win this series because I really have had enough of Boston sports recently between the Red Sox, Patriots, and the newly-retooled Celtics. Last night did not help matters on that front.

On edit: I’ve realized that the image I took on my cell phone’s camera of the sprinklers being on is kind of shitty and doesn’t really do my story justice. Just trust me, it looked really stupid. I also realized that I introduced the note on yesterday’s posting with an instant messaging acronym, and for that I feel like a worse human being.