and the problem that started this whole ordeal was not solved

Since the new flooring is in, the plumber came yesterday morning to reseat the toilet and to snake the kitchen drain. They left after putting the toilet back for another job and to get the snake they needed and returned in the afternoon. In the meantime, Marc used the toilet which did not completely empty when flushed which is why we called Rocky in the first place and which caused the whole replacing the plumbing under the house and in the walls of that bathroom. Apparently we all got blinded by replacing the plumbing and completely forgot about the clogged up toilet.

So after they cleared the kitchen sink drain yay! they tried the snake on the toilet. It went in and in and in but never encountered any obstruction and never emerged in the pipe to the septic system as viewed from the clean-out about 6' or 7' from the toilet. It went up the vent pipe instead. So they tried from the clean-out and the snake went to the pipe from the kitchen sink and not the toilet. So they removed the toilet again, tried the snake again with the same result.

Now master plumber Bill is talking about having to dig up the sewer pipe from the toilet to the septic tank or at least to the PVC where the clean-out is. So Gunnar gets the shovel and starts digging and encounters roots from the Chinese fringe flower tree right outside my window immediately and also having to dig up a large clump of liriope and there's bricks and stuff and so now Bill wants to bring in the little Kubota but that means tearing down a section of fence because they don't think it will fit through the gate and he says the fringe flower tree needs to be cut down, that it's most likely roots have gotten in the pipe, none of which I wanted to do.

So after muttering fuck and what a bunch of shit and again fuck, I told them that they should go on to whatever job and give me the rest of the day to dig. They didn't like that idea and so while they discussed their afternoon plans I got in the with the shovel and started digging, using the long handled nippers to cut roots when needed and then Gunner started digging and we finally found the concrete sewer pipe from the toilet and while we were uncovering that Bill called Rocky to get him over here to help and when Rocky got here he took my shovel and told me to get out of the way so Rocky and Gunnar got it all uncovered and found that there had already been a repair where the concrete pipe joined the PVC to the septic tank at an angle (which is why the snake went awry from the clean out though why it went up the vent pipe from the toilet instead of the sewer pipe is anybody's guess, well we did understand why later) and it looked like they just mixed up a bag of concrete and poured it over the whole mess so they had to use what looked like a mini jackhammer to bust that all up along with the concrete sewer pipe until they finally got enough of it removed to find the clog...a huge solid 12" mass of tree roots and sludge. Pulled that out, ran water into the sewer pipe from the bathroom, no water flowed out so they dug more and broke away more and more of the concrete pipe until they came to the part under the house that was completely encased all around by tree root and also filled with tree root from the old tallow tree across the yard (so yay, I don't need to cut down my Chinese fringe flower tree since it wasn't the problem after all). 

They hacked away at that until they finally got it all clear and the old pipe removed and the new PVC installed and the toilet now flushes completely and we have not only all new plumbing under the floor and in the walls of the bathroom but also new underground sewer pipe from the toilet to the PVC to the septic tank.

Good news, right? Not so good news on the water heater. I called the manufacturer to honor the warranty and cover the cost of repair or replacement and the customer service woman asked me a bunch of questions the upshot of which was that it needs to be registered (which hadn't been done) to honor the warranty and it couldn't be registered until it was installed properly so when you get it installed properly, send us pictures and we'll talk. What!!! Currently, the water heater is in a closet in the bathroom where the previous water heater was installed. According to the manufacturer, gas water heaters cannot be installed in a bathroom or a bedroom, it has to be in a closet with a solid self closing door with weatherstripping and an air supply/vent from outside. Moving the water heater anywhere would involve all kinds of expense involving moving gas lines and water lines not to mention building a closet with all that they require and we're supposed to do this for a water heater that doesn't even work right now. Our current plumber Bill says this water heater would probably crap out on us in a few years from now anyway if we did get it fixed since everything made these days is engineered to fail in 5 to 7 years. The one we replaced 3 1/2 years ago had lasted 27 years.

So here we are, still no hot water, waiting for the part to come in to see if the previous plumber can fix it or not.

Geez. Why does every problem have to be a fucking can of worms!

another rescue of sorts

There was no sleeping at the shelter which was all wood floors with a stage and long tables and chairs but that aside, they kept the lights on because they were still bringing people in and the young children were so hyped up they were all running around screeching and babies were crying. I got up on the stage with the dog and laid down in a back corner using my extra shorts and shirt as a 'pillow' trying to get some rest at least while Marc stayed on the main floor talking with friends Judy and Leonard, the neighbors who were rescued with us. I could only lay on my back as my bony hips did not like that wood floor. I kept telling myself 'you can do this, you do this all the time at yoga, it's just a very long shavasana'. The kids finally all dropped from exhaustion sometime around 3 AM when they finally had stopped bringing people in and turned off the lights.

Around 5 AM Thursday morning I texted my friend Caroline who lives on the Square in the upstairs apartment of the buildings she and husband Wesley own because I knew she would probably be up by then to see how they were fairing, if the river had crested, if they had water in the street since the Square is only two blocks from the Colorado River but it is also the highest ground in town. I was concerned about my sister who had called us in a panic for the number to call for a water rescue just as we were being rescued...her power had gone out, she was surrounded by water and it was about a foot from coming in her house. The last time I talked to her was once we were on the pavement waiting to be ferried to the shelter, she had got the number and called for rescue. The next time I tried to call her, her phone went straight to voicemail and I had no idea where she was or if she was OK.

Caroline was still on dry ground and volunteered Wesley, when he got up, to go to her house and check on her in his F 600 Ford work truck which you practically need a step ladder to get in to. That proved to be unnecessary as my sister called shortly. She had tired of waiting to be rescued (and in fact rescues had been suspended til daylight), turned off her phone to preserve the battery, and gone to bed as the water had quit rising. About 9 AM, Wesley showed up at the shelter to take us to Pam's as while her front yard and street was covered with deep water, 

standing on my sister's small front porch looking across the street

looking left

looking right, she got about 18” in her garage

her backyard slopes up to high ground and we only had to wade through about knee deep water to her back door. Eventually the power came back on and we were quite happy to be there when two guardsmenboys came to the door asking if we wanted to be evacuated as they were opening a dam and they expected the river to rise overnight. We declined at first (I'm already losing some of the details) but I talked to Caroline again and she volunteered Wesley to come get us and we could stay downstairs in one of the party rooms (their buildings on the square are event venues) that had leather banquettes and power and I was all for it. I had to do a little arm twisting on Pam because she didn't want to leave her house, told us to go ahead on to which I replied that we were not going to be separated, it was only for one night, and “I was not going through another night like last night” being rescued with the water lapping at the door so we gathered up pillows, sheets, clothes, and animals and Wesley came and got us. As it turned out, they did not open a dam and the water actually receded about 6” overnight. The next morning, Friday, Wesley ferried us back to my sister's house.

next: water walk and first look

time to get with the program

Well, it's happening again. I'm being dragged kicking and screaming from my little cave into the modern world. Marc finally followed up on his threats of getting me an iPhone. I was happy with my little flip phone. It was uncomplicated and did what I needed it to do...make phone calls, text, and tell me what time it is. Plus, it fit nicely in any of my pockets. And since I don't carry a purse, and we all know how mostly useless pockets are in women's pants, this is a big deal.

I haven't activated it yet. Right now I'm making a list of all the phone contacts in my old phone since I may have to enter them all in by hand on the new phone. But even if there is a way to magically transfer my contact list, it's not a bad idea to have a list of phone numbers elsewhere other than the phone.

I'm guessing hoping that I can transfer all my data from the iPad to the iPhone via my iMac. iYiyiyiyi!

So long little purple Lazer. It was a good run.

who needs fucking enemies from without

There is no need for Islamic terrorists to bring us down, we are doing a fine job of it ourselves. We are killing far more of us every day than any Islamic terrorist could do. Terrorists may go for the big flashy statement, but for body count, we can't be beat.

Guns are rampant in this country. All kinds, shapes, sizes. Guns for children even. Another record for gun sales this past Black Friday. Why? Last week's outrage, the Syrian refugees, no doubt. Those people who have suffered the loss of everything in their world...their homes and lives turned to rubble by our bombs. Their ability to care of their families gone up in smoke. No home, no job, no neighborhood, no infrastructure, no food, no water, they are left with the clothes on their backs and their lives. These people who have undergone up to two years of scrutiny, who only want a safe place to raise their families, that are the victims of the very people we say we are fighting, that are finally being allowed in are being vilified by our politicians and a good segment of our population who want to refuse them entry and if they are let in want to refuse them any help because they are being told by the rabid right wing and Fox News that these people should be feared. Never mind that if a terrorist wants in this country it is far easier to get in on a visitor's visa.

Meanwhile, a guy gets pissed off at his waitress because she asked him not to smoke in the restaurant so he pulls out his gun and shoots her in the head.

Meanwhile, a guy hides in the dark and shoots his neighbor three times because she asked him earlier in the day not to drive his riding lawnmower across her yard.

Meanwhile, a guy shoots his neighbor because the man refused to move his car which he had parked in the public street in front of the shooter's house.

Meanwhile, a guy shoots his two kids and then himself.

Meanwhile, a guy shoots up a Planned Parenthood killing three people and injuring many more.

Meanwhile, a man and a woman burst into a banquet and open fire killing 14 people and wounding 17 others, most critically.

And that was just some of what went on this week but by all means, let's be afraid of desperate Syrian women and children.

Did you know that people on the FBI's terrorist watch list can buy guns here legally?

I had thought I would write about the Syrian refugees and the shameful and hateful attitude towards them by so many Americans. The attacks in Paris just galvanized them and the whole time I'm thinking that we are in far more danger from our neighbors than we are from any outside terrorist. We have a culture of gun ownership gone bizarre, a hysteria of fear and hatred in a country where the gun has become the only solution to every problem, where would be vigilantes parade down the street brandishing their long guns, where victims are blamed for not having their own gun amid the chaos...

business as usual when suddenly the door slams open and 2 gunmen lay down constant fire from their long guns with huge ammo clips for 5 or 6 minutes, who leave as suddenly as they came and so when amid all the noise and chaos and screaming and diving for cover and adrenalin dumping in your system causing you to shake and you're trying to figure out what the fuck is happening and you look down to see the blood coming from the bullet hole in your body and tell me just exactly when you stupid idiot who thinks you could have taken out the shooter because you think you are 'well trained', just when in all that do you think you could have pulled out your own gun and started shooting before they nailed you

...where someone who goes target shooting considers himself 'well trained' and so never goes anywhere without his gun. People who can't venture out and feel safe without a handgun on them will one day use that weapon. They want to use it. That's why they have it. The feeling of safety is an illusion as the reality is that the presence of a gun increases the likelihood of it being used and when guns get used, people die. 

The hue and cry will once again die down and once again no reforms to gun ownership will be made. It is, after all, just normal life here. The deaths of all the innocents are considered debt paid for those who think their right to wield a deadly weapon trumps innocent lives.

So, because we would rather turn a blind eye instead of face our homegrown terrorism, we justify our obsession with guns by projecting our fear onto the helpless and disenfranchised Syrians fleeing for their lives.

Just what the fucking fuck, America? Just, what the fuck.

dead things

Did I mention I have another dead critter in the wall of my house exactly where the last one died? Probably another rat. I heard gnawing in the wee hours in the wall behind the stove several weeks ago. It was directly above the access to beneath the house (we're on pier and beam) that I had opened up about 4 years ago so the plumbers could do some repairs on the kitchen sink plumbing. I had replaced the wire mesh but when I looked it had been pushed enough to allow entrance.

Have I mentioned how much I hate rats in the walls? The old house in the city had them and in the winter they would wake me up gnawing in the walls by my head in the bed. I hate killing things. I don't kill things with a few exceptions...copperheads if they are near the house, rats if they are in the house, wasps if they are building a nest in my areas of activity otherwise I leave them alone.

So I put one of the poison baits (which I really hate, it seems so cowardly but how else to get rid of a rat in the wall?) through the hole in the wire mesh and tried to close up the hole and forgot about it. Until last week. The odor is fading now and I suppose I should be glad the weather is cooler. Even so, why, why do they always want to die in my walls!

Speaking of dead things, there was a dead red shouldered hawk on the roadside a couple of streets down from ours. I saw it when we were heading in to the city Saturday. I sure hope it's not our local hawk, the one who comes to visit to get water and a bath.

We got back late and it was rainy so Sunday morning I jumped in the truck with leather gloves in hand to check it out, hoping it hadn't been run over, which it had. I threw the water logged thing in the truck anyway for closer inspection at home. I couldn't tell if the skull was damaged but it's lower beak was a bit broken. I wonder if it was intent on some prey and blasted into the side of a moving vehicle. I can't imagine how else it would come to be dead on the side of the road.

Anyway, I got the long handled nippers and cut it's head off which is now buried in a fire ant bed. It will make a nice addition to my bird skull collection if it's not too damaged. I also took one wing that I have no idea what I am going to do with (the other was too damaged) and the feet with talons, also buried in a fire ant bed. Don't ask me why.  

  

three steps forward and one step back

I'm less than thrilled with some of the results of this week in the city.  

We did get an installation done, a pair of doors in a contemporary design, for a guy who has been waiting for over 5 months.  But then, he's been meaning to do something about those doors since he moved into that house 9 years ago.  I did warn him.  Anyway, the installation went well and he is pleased.

I didn't finish the next job which is replacing one of a pair of door lites originally done some 12 years ago.  I did get the background done but I still need to do one more technique, something I don't do anymore.  I'm looking for an alternative to the clear acrylic satin spray I used.  I did find a paintable acrylic so I made progress there.

And the troublesome client and her husband came over to view the other three pieces of the commission that haven't been installed yet. We were all very nice and pleasant and she even paid the balance on the window that is already installed and they are happy with the other three pieces.

Then she started asking me questions about the shower door...where's the hardware, is it supposed to be that tall, wasn't what I charged for the etching the whole cost of the shower door? So I had to remind her that no, my charge was for the etching only and she owed my installer for the glass, hardware, and installation. I even showed her on the proposal where I had specified 'etching only' on the shower door. That didn't mean anything to her, she didn't remember, she thought that was for the whole thing. I explained to her that my only association with the glass company is that I hired them to do my installations and I couldn't answer any of her questions.

To her credit, she did call me several hours later to tell me that she did, after all, remember about the shower door and apologized. Sheesh.

So, I guess really the only thing I'm dissatisfied about is the samples I did for the Leadership Wall. One came out as I expected but the other one did not read well. So I did it again a little differently and I still wasn't happy with it so it's back to the drawing board on that one.

a better ending

Some of you might remember that in 2011 I was asked to present a proposal to the garden club for their gift of a sculpture-turned-etched glass to the library, which I did in December of that year. The garden club had amassed a large sum of money and needed to spend it to avoid having to pay taxes on the bank account.

You can read the whole sordid tale here if you are interested.

I did find out last September, quite by accident, from the people that got the commission that the committee had, indeed, shown them my design.

It dredged up all the bad feelings for a while but I did succeed in putting it all behind me. I was just too damn busy by then to allow it to occupy my thoughts. And the people who did the work, which was installed last summer, were in dire straits and really needed the commission so it was hard for me to begrudge them it especially since we were starting on the two walls for Invesco.

Fast forward to yesterday when I finally dragged my sorry ass to the gym after more than a week since my previous visit. I was about halfway through my cardio when a lady started up on the treadmill next to me and asked what I was reading (I always take a book to read while I do my brisk walk). She was very friendly and chatty, as if she knew me. She looked familiar but I couldn't place her until she mention the Garden Club. I told her that I hadn't been to any of the meetings this year because we had so much work and I was always in the city on Thursdays (meeting day). She asked what kind of work we did and then put two and two together and asked if we had done the work for the library.

“No”, I told her, “we had submitted a proposal but it wasn't picked. “

“I liked your design the best.” she said.

“Really?”, I replied, “cause I only got 5 votes.”

“I know.” she said. “I liked your design the best but I didn't vote for it and I'll tell you why. It was more money. Just about everyone liked your design the best” she continued, “but they didn't vote for it for the same reason.”

I was a little dumbfounded. I knew, even if they didn't, that my proposal was within the budget allocated for the project.

So, even though they were asked to vote on the design they liked best, what they voted on was the amount of money they liked best.

Somehow, that actually makes me feel better about the whole thing.

tempest in a teapot

It seems some sort of sanity has been restored pursuant to my last post. After three rude and somewhat insulting emails from the husband and my snarky calm, diplomatic, and educational responses, I fully expected to receive a reply saying that they would not be paying me the balance owed. It was all I was waiting for in order to start the legal proceedings. After all, in his last email, he told me to 'fix the lizard' (in a way that illustrated his complete ignorance of what was done or what could be done) or come get the window and give them their money back. What I got instead was a conciliatory note from the wife, who I had been dealing with throughout the commission. She loves the window, has accepted the fact that the lizard is not highly visible, and that we would most certainly get paid.

So it turned out to be a tempest in a teapot but it would have been nice if they hadn't added a huge negative layer to my weekend.

Other than that we have been so busy finishing up the three residential commissions we received during the Invesco project that have been waiting so patiently. The third one should get finished this week and then next week we should have two installations.

In the off days, when we aren't in the shop doing fabrication, I've been working on the images for the most recent commission, a 'leadership wall' in the conference room of a business. Four quotes and portraits of men that the head honcho finds inspiring etched on wall mounted panels. This is a very challenging job as I've never done anything quite like this before. I usually shy away from portraits but they say they don't want straight portraits but want them treated 'artistically', whatever the fuck that means. Anyway, another couple of long days and I should be ready for a presentation to them.

I'm so happy to have so much work, have two more residential projects to submit a proposal for, after that very long dry spell, but it would be nice to have a week or so between jumping from one commission to the next. Soon. We should be done with all fabrication and installations in the next couple of weeks, at least until I get the sketches approved and the full size drawings done for the leadership wall.

In the meantime, it's still spring here, beautiful days interspersed with cold, overcast, and rain...typical spring weather for us. I did spend the day in the yard on Sunday, my one day off these days but it has been so consistently windy the last week that I haven't been able to get any good pictures.

Hopefully the work load will let up some in the coming weeks and I will find the time and energy to post about other things a little more often.

redux

I'm still thinking about this voter ID thing that is being debated in court now even though the Justice Department had already ruled that it imposed an undue hardship on the poor, the disenfranchised, and the elderly. Our state attorney general, Greg Abbott no relation!, still saw fit to sue the government over it.

Our Republican dominated state government, the one that slashed funding to volunteer and regular fire departments, that gutted education, and refused federal funding for health care for the poor and as a result our state burned during the drought, our schools and educational system are the worst in the country, and our population has the least access to healthcare despite having one of the leading medical centers in the country; this Republican government has a new plan.

Now they want to require a special 'free' voter ID card, justifying their new law by saying they need to combat voter fraud. When I think of elections here and those in certain other countries that purport to have an elected government through voting, I can't help but think that whatever voter fraud goes on here is negligible in comparison. If voter fraud was such a problem, I think they wouldn't have to force it. And they are having to force it.

So tell me. Which is worse? Allowing that no system is perfect and keeping an eye on known weaknesses and perhaps have a very small percentage of fraudulent votes get through, or, instituting measures that would engender a loss of 18%* of the poor, minority, and elderly voter block.

The latter is voter fraud as far as I'm concerned, another attempt to marginalize the opposition just like they do with redistricting. Don't get me wrong. I'm not against trying to do something about voter fraud, but I'm certainly not going to take their word that it's a big problem just because they say so and I'm not really seeing any evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Republicans are very good at the scare tactic. It's what they do. Every time the population gets restless they drag out some bugaboo and whip up a good ole hysteria about it to distract us, while they plot against our rights and freedoms. And enrich themselves at our expense.

Like our attorney general Greg Abbott no relation! who was jogging on a stormy evening and a tree fell on him in a freak accident and he became a paraplegic who sued the homeowner and won a multi-million dollar lawsuit, went into politics, and pushed through tort reform to prevent exactly what he got. He got his so, who cares, right?

And if they aren't scaring us then they are questioning our patriotism or our sexuality or accusing us of acting on feelings instead of thinking because surely if we were thinking, we would think the way they do.

Well, the thing is, liberals do think. We are intelligent, we do read, we do consider, we do understand. We just don't agree with conservative conclusions or agendas. We think they are ruining this country, have ruined this country.

They have certainly ruined this state.

*http://www.thenation.com/blog/166741/doj-blocks-discriminatory-texas-voter-id-law

 

voter ID or voter fraud?

I foolishly let myself get drawn into a FB 'conversation' over the continual efforts of the Texas Republicans to institute a new voter ID card to combat 'voter fraud' in our state. The Justice Department has ruled against it as posing undue hardship on the poor and minorities, infringing on their constitutional right to vote but that doesn't stop our state attorney general from filing a lawsuit against the government over it, his 24^th, incidentally, against the government since he took office in 2004.

The reason the republicans give for the new ID card is to prevent voter fraud. The problem with that is that the percentage of proven voter fraud in our state is so small as to be negligible, except perhaps in some local elections where only a small percentage of the population votes in the first place and the races are sometimes decided by a few votes, as pointed out by a proponent of the law.

The effect of the new voter ID card will be, in fact, to disenfranchise many thousands of legal, law abiding voters.

This was my comment :

I've always had to show an ID to vote, we already do have to show an ID to vote. that's not the problem. the problem is they want to change it to a state issued picture ID. that means a lot of people won't be able to vote that have been able to vote in the past. for some people getting a state issued photo ID is not easy or even possible. the new restriction will make it extremely difficult for the poor and disenfranchised and students and elderly to vote. and there is no reason for this new restriction since there has never been any problem with voter fraud. hell half the people in this country don't vote anyway. the only reason I can think of for the republicans to push this new restriction is because they don't feel like they can win in a fair setting so they are trying to make it harder for people who traditionally don't vote republican to vote at all. and that is not what America is about. voting is a constitutional right. all those people who would be turned away at the polls because they don't have the new 'proper' ID, all those people who used to be able to vote, will still be held by the results of any election, an election they were turned away from participating in. and if you think getting this new free state issued voter ID from the DPS is easy, try being poor with no driver's license so you have to take the bus, you have several children at home that you will have to take with you or find a bay sitter except you can't afford one, you will have to take a day (or two if there is a big crowd at the DPS) off work which you can't afford even if your boss will give you the day off, and you have to have proper identification like a birth certificate that you don't have a copy of. this new voter ID that the republicans have tried to impose and was struck down by the Justice Department is unnecessary. it will impose undue hardship and obstruction on legal voters. Prove first that there is a problem, that there has been voter fraud and by that I mean voter fraud that wasn't purposely perpetrated by a republican to prove that there is voter fraud.

To which he dug up a few statistics stretching all the way back to 1948 to justify the need. The number of fraudulent votes this new law might possibly prevent is miniscule compared to the number of legal votes it will prevent. And besides, it's not the poor, the minorities, the students, or the old people who commit voter fraud. It's the cronies and the funders that have a personal stake in the outcome who commit voter fraud and those people will find a way, new ID card or not.

So I asked him...

burning down the house to get rid of a few roaches is an appropriate response in your opinion?

Perhaps he didn't like my analogy which I thought was quite apt. Taking an extreme approach to a minor problem that ultimately doesn't really address the problem but causes all kinds of damage anyway,

because this was his reply...

The courts will decide this one. We are living in two separate universes. thanks for the debate. Adios.

Well, fella, the Justice Department has already decided it but our state continues to waste everyone's time and money to pursue it and I thank the powers that be that we do live in different universes because yours must be a pretty dismal place unless you are one of the chosen.

pecan thoughts

I've already lost count of how many gallons of immature pecans I've picked up. The ones falling now are big fat green ones. Falling or plucked I can't tell as they are still half eaten, but at least I can walk around out there barefoot without hobbling with every step. And I do like to walk around out there barefoot.

I find contact with the earth to be soothing and healing, I'm an earth sign after all. I love to dig, get my fingers in the dirt, crumble the clods, add compost and turn it in. I like to plant too, and see the beings grow and reward me with their flowers or feed me with their fruits. But it's the dirt that really attracts me, that gives such satisfaction after I've spent a day preparing a bed.

So there's only two ways of picking up pecans, walking bent over or sitting on the ground. Well, yes there are those nifty little devices that look a little bit like a giant wisk on a long pole but I don't have one so I walk and bend over or walk bent over. It's a mindless task so my mind tends to wander.

I had a commercial ditty stuck in my head for several days that was driving me nuts (hee hee, get it? Nuts?) and walking around out there yesterday evening I realized that I had finally gotten it out of my head, had even forgotten what it was. What was that that was driving me crazy? Searching around in my head for it, the minute it came to me I realized my mistake.

No no! Back up, I don't want to remember it. What a dolt. So now I was frantically trying to think of another song before it got stuck in my head again.

I could not think of a single refrain, much less a whole song and there are plenty of songs I sing along to when I think no one can hear me. Finally, one came to me, so now I was out there singing House Of The Rising Sun over and over and surprisingly I remembered almost the whole thing and which also happens to be the one and only song I've ever karaoked.

Finally, my one gallon bucket was full and I walked back to the burn pile and tossed them on. If we ever get to burn again the whole county is going to have one big bonfire after another. I keep eyeing my neighbor's pile trying to decide whose is bigger. I think ours is taller but his is wider.

Before going back in for the evening, I hooked up the hose to one of the soakers. It was nearing sunset and I thought that although the days were still getting into triple digits, the mornings and evenings seemed to be cooler more enjoyable less hot than they had been so perhaps there will be an end to this endless summer after all.

close but no cigar

Can you see the rain in this picture?

I know, hard to see.

It was raining lightly while the sun was shining the whole time. We caught just the barest edge of the little rain cloud. Only lasted about 10 minutes or so. Enough rain to get the exposed areas wet but not enough to make it through even the barest canopy. Enough to kind of rinse things off a bit. I was out there calling to it, trying to persuade it to come my way but it had other plans.

Later, on my way to check on my sister's cats while she is gone (the dogs are here), I saw that they got a decent little shower in town.

Actual puddles of water still standing.

I'm trying hard not to be envious.

They need water too.