WET CHECKS

Home in Port Charlotte
morning low of 62, high of 82
brief passing showers

Weekend #6 of irrigation install was a milestone. The backflow preventer was installed and the mainline was charged with water.  No leaks.  I tested a few valves to bleed air from the system.  No leaks.  I completely finished turf zone 1 and 8, backfilled the trenches and ran sprinklers for the first time.  No leaks.  I spent much of the day working in light showers.

Islamorada, in the Keys, received over 7" of rain yesterday.  Much of the Everglades were a downpour zone, as were the areas north of Tampa.  We in Port Charlotte were under tornado watch after midnight but none formed.  The culprit of all of this excitement was a tropical cold front that came up from the Caribbean and clashed with warm Gulf air and water.  We awoke to a chilly morning but it quickly gave way to 80 degree temps.

I'm headed back into the yard to install more sprinkler heads, do wet checks and bury lines.
This coming week I will be headed to Palm Beach County and Fort Piece, returning home Thursday night to watch the NFL draft.

My neighbor and fellow Cardinals football fan, Chuck, was involved in a terrible accident 2 weeks ago.  He drives an 18 wheeler for one of the big grocery chains.  He was driving in Fort Myers at 3:00 AM on a Saturday morning when a Mustang full of teenagers blew a stop sign at high speed and T-boned the tandem axle of Chuck's rig.  The 19 year old girl driving was killed instantly and the others were hospitalized with serious injuries.  Chuck was lucky.  A second's difference would have put them into his fuel tank and created a bomb.

Keep a good thought for my buddy.  He's doing good but an experience like that would rattle anyone.