KNOCK, KNOCK...WHO'S THERE?

Home in PC
75*, raining for 3 hours

We awoke to the sound of thunder this morning and it was welcome. It has been several months since Charlotte County received significant rainfall. We have taken on more than an inch already this morning. It's good news/bad news for the new grass. The front will get a deep watering and save us money from having to use the house water. The seed out back, which was dropped one week ago, has been moved all around from the large puddling. There's nothing we can do about it so I'm trying not to get upset. On the bright side, a few areas out back already had germinated and show little patches of new grass blades.

The tides have been back to their warm season highs this week. Several times the water touched the bottom of the dock. I pulled the boat off the lift on Friday, tied up to the dock and did some maintenance on the lift cables. Since I put the boat in the water I started the engine and ran it for 15 minutes to keep our one remaining battery charged (other one died but budget restrictions have prevented replacement). While I idled the engine I washed the boat. It was well overdue with lots of crap in the cockpit. After putting the boat back on the lift I hooked the freshwater hose up and flushed the saltwater from the engine for 10 minutes. While doing the flush I cast a fishing line into the canal and finally caught something worthwhile; a lure I had snagged and lost across the canal six months ago. My old line, swivel and rattletrap lure where still in tact.

Last week I ran 5 miles on Monday and Tuesday both, but not since then. I plan on getting back on schedule tomorrow. I downloaded a plan to begin a 12 week training program for a half marathon (13.1 miles).

Saturday night we got together with Rolando and Kathy next door and grilled chicken kabobs then watched a movie together. At 10:30 PM there was a knock on their door. A woman was frantically telling us about the Charlotte County watering restrictions and she was having a fit that Rolando's sprinklers were running. I knew they weren't supposed to be on so I pretended to be shocked and thanked her and told her we'd shut them down right away. I had warned Rolando and he thought he had adjusted his timer to water only on Wednesday night. As she left, I realized who she was; the water meter reader who lives down our street. We all found her actions pretty brazen, knocking a strangers door late at night to tell us to turn off our water, but considering the current water restrictions carry a $250 fine if you are caught watering on a day other than your designated one day a week, Rolando will be lucky if she doesn't turn him in.

I'm amazed that Phoenix gets an average of 9" of annual rainfall in the middle of the desert and has no water restrictions. Sub-tropical Florida gets 49" of rain a year and restricts landscape watering to one day per week. They used to allow hand watering everyday but under the current stage 3 restrictions, you can't even do that. We get a pass for a couple of weeks after installing a new lawn but we have to be very careful about avoiding the fines.

The rain has now stopped and the forecast is for partly cloudy skies the rest of the day.