Green Green Green

Driving in to work is actually a pleasure. I drive about 12 miles, most of it at 65 miles per hour.It took longer to get to my job in Denver that was only 5 miles away but start and stop and 35 mph. I drive along with a view of the Bluffs that is the best you can get and the farmland that is -thanks to irrigation-the best you can get. When I lived here as a kid the entire end of the state was brown. Just brown. There was cattle, and some wheat and beans along the river, and oil and missle silos, but green seldom happened except in the little towns. Of course when I lived here there was no interstate so eveyone had to drive thorough the beautiful little green towns and get that wonderful feeling of restful green between brown.

When irrigation came-actually the year I graduated from high school-it changed everything. I used to fly over Nebraska a lot and I watched from the air the round circles of green show up that had never been there before-a central pedestal going around in a circle-wasted a lot of ground between circles-but stunning from the air. Nobody does circle here anymore-far more advanced. The valley in front of the Bluffs is green green green.

And every year the water board struggles to get enough water for everybody.