A quick search of the Web netted these tips for saving water:

In the bathroom:

If you're taking a shower, don't waste cold water while waiting for hot water to reach the shower head. Catch that water in a container to use on your outside plants or to flush your toilet. Saves 200 to 300 gallons a month.

Turn off the water while brushing your teeth. Saves three gallons each day.

Turn off the water while shaving. Fill the bottom of the sink with a few inches of water to rinse your razor. Saves three gallons each day.

Take shorter showers "try to keep it under 5 minutes. Better yet, turn the water on just long enough to get wet. Then soap up and only turn the water back on long enough to rinse off.

Take showers instead of baths. While a five minute shower uses 12 to 25 gallons, a full tub requires about 70 gallons.

Don't use the toilet as a garbage can. Place a trash can next to the toilet and use it instead.

In the kitchen:

If you wash dishes by hand--and that's the best way--don't leave the water running for rinsing. If you have two sinks, fill one with rinse water. If you only have one sink, use a spray device or short blasts instead of letting the water run. Saves 200 to 500 gallons a month.

When washing dishes by hand, use the least amount of detergent possible. This minimizes rinse water needed. Saves 50 to 150 gallons a month.

Keep a bottle of drinking water in the refrigerator. This beats the wasteful habit of running tap water to cool it for drinking. Saves 200 to 300 gallons a month.

Don't defrost frozen foods with running water. Either plan ahead by placing frozen items in the refrigerator overnight or defrost them in the microwave. Saves 50 to 150 gallons a month.

Don't let the faucet run while you clean vegetables. Rinse them in a filled sink or pan. Saves 150 to 250 gallons a month.

Use the garbage disposal less and the garbage more (even better--compost!). Saves 50 to 150 gallons a month.

Select one glass to use for drinking each day. If you do this, your dishwasher will take longer to fill up and it will not need to be run as frequently.

Let your pots and pans soak instead of letting the water run while you clean them

If found these tips at the two sites listed below. Both sites have many more tips.

http://conservewater.utah.gov/Tips/http://www.monolake.org/about/waterconservation#kitchen

Do you have any tips you'd like to add to this list?

The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.
Down came the rain, and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain
And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.

Last Sunday it was not a good idea for spiders to go up water spouts. Neither is this a good time for Californians to continue to treat fresh water as if it falls freely from the sky.

The sun will come out again. Will we be like the spider and take the same path up the spout as soon as it is dry or will we break old habits and finally start to treat water as the precious resource that it is?

Habit: an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. (Dictionary.com)

When habits aren't developed, actions often don't occur. Take exercising regularly for example. For many people, exercising isn't a habit. It is something that requires a conscious decision. Many people consider how they are feeling before they go for a walk or if they have time to workout at the gym. Because exercising isn't a habit, they have to think about it and so exercising doesn't happen often or at all! Once going for a walk or going to the gym becomes a habit like brushing their teeth, they exercise more often.

But habits can also be self-defeating.

Because habits represent actions done with little thought, habits often involve thoughtless actions. I've watched people turn on the faucet and brush their teeth (and shave too) with the water running the entire time. Water, one of humanity's most precious resources, running down the drain. Water, one of humanity's most precious resources, wasted. Consider two other things we value, gasoline and money. Can you imagine anyone pumping gasoline into the gutter or throwing money into a shredder? Yet isn't that how we treat water?

I think one of the most difficult things for people to do is to break old habits. Some people brush their teeth or shave with the water running the whole time; how did they develop this habit? What would it take for someone who brushes or shaves this way to break this habit and turn the water off while brushing or shaving?

If you brush or shave this way, consider the senseless waste of what you are doing and change your ways. If you know someone who brushes or shaves this way, ask them why they leave the water running. Maybe all they need to break the habit is to be made aware of the senseless waste of what they are doing!

Isnt that wonderful!

Even so, I was having too much fun to get in out of the rain.

I decided I'd spend some time with my camera this morning looking for rainy day sights.

When the rain comes
They run and hide their heads...

Unfortunately for Californians, when it comes to rain, we're always hiding our heads, in the sand that is.

The financial meltdown, largely brought on by the depreciating value of homes is constantly in the news these days and a major source of concern for most Californians. That we are experiencing our third dry year in a row and heading towards severe water restrictions if we don't get a LOT MORE RAIN isn't getting a small fraction of the same attention in the news.

What do you think will happen to the value of homes in California if there isn't enough water to meet our needs? And yet we treat water as if it will always be there when we turn on a faucet. There is no guarantee of that!

Why do we wait until there is a looming drought before we take steps to conserve water? Why doesn't water conservation get as much REGULAR attention as energy conservation? What has to happen before we realize that water is one of our most precious resources and treat it accordingly ALL THE TIME, not just when we are running on empty?

In case you are interested, Mike Ban, the city's director of water resources will give a report to the City Council on Petaluma's water outlook this coming Monday, Feb. 23, at City Hall at 7:00 PM. If you feel as strongly as I do about the importance of YEAR ROUND water conservation, come to the meeting. I am hoping to find out why, when it comes to water conservation, Petaluma waits until there is a drought before it takes action.

And finally it has. Wonderful, refreshing rain. With apologies to anyone whose weekend/holiday plans were negatively affected by all the wetness, I hope we have lots more rain on the way.

Oil/gasoline gets all the attention but I remind myself (and others) that we can live a lot longer without gasoline than we can without water. And talk about decreasing home values, try selling a home that has no water supply!

As the Beatles said, "Rain, rain, rain, I don't mind..."