Wednesday, August 10 2022

Dear Journal,

Good morning, friends. Happy Wednesday morning. How are you feeling today? I'm feeling pretty good myself, thank you. Maybe it's the cooler weather we've had this week. Or possibly getting my first haircut since we moved has me feeling put together and well-groomed for a change. Or maybe it's because I've been sitting at the computer for ten minutes, and so far I haven't had to get up to talk to a village inspector.

Why question a good morning? Instead of trying to get to the bottom of these good vibes, let's just keep sipping coffee and go with the flow.

Sip. Yeah, how about that inspector that rang our doorbell at 8:30 in the morning the other day? That made for a weird morning. But I have to admit, once I just resigned to pushing the rest of my day back by about twenty minutes, I got caught up in the excitement of problem solving.

"Whether that's a down-spout or from the sump', those aren't suppose to extend more than ten feet from the property," she said. "Technically, that's..."

"Illegal?" I suggested.

The inspector pursed her lips and nodded. "We don't want property owners dumping rain water into their neighbors' yards," she continued. "That's the spirit of the law. The right thing to do is to distribute it around the land you own."

"Well, this is an old house... maybe they put this in back in the sixties or something before there were good laws for that kind of thing..."

The inspector shook her head before I even finished my sentence. "The plastic tubing doesn't last very long," she hinted. "It had to have been in the last five years or so."

So what began with a mysterious wet spot in the yard ended up being an illegal, underground drain. Before leaving, she assured me that it wouldn't be a problem unless neighbors started to complain. I followed her back up our driveway and thanked her for her time.

"Oh, and you should probably clean out your gutter, that's probably why this one is leaking out of the middle," she said.

"Nope," I smirked. "That was my fault. I clipped it while backing out a U-haul - I'm on top of it." I have to admit, after patiently listening to the inspector lecture me about my house's run-off water for the previous twenty minutes, it felt good to correct her on something.

After all the fun we had last weekend swimming, mini-golfing, and galavanting around the zoo, it's been a heads down kind of week. I've been tethered to my office chair, leaving the room for lunch, water breaks, and walks with Ziggy. Marissa has been hard at work shlepping the rest of the rocks out of the pit. It's still a pit, but by the sweat of her brow, now it's strictly a dirt and sand pit.

We hired some people to finish the job - they'll bring in some equipment to bust of the concrete supports and finally cover the area with grass. Then what will we do? I bet Marissa will celebrate the summer-long pool removal project by taking a nap in the fresh new patch of grass. "Maybe we'll set out an inflatable pool there," she laughed.

Meanwhile, Miles and Rodney have been so rambunctious, I think we're more excited for the beginning of the school year than they are. In fact, I'm so tired from 24/7 summer Rodney that I found myself doing something I thought I'd never do - taunting him about the final days of his waning summer.

"You know what today is, dude?" I asked from across the lunch table. Rodney perked up. "It's the last Tuesday of the summer," I teased. "And tomorrow is the last Wednesday of the summer. I wonder if you'll have homework to do next week."

Rodney seemed un-phased by my teasing. School or no-school, homework or not, it makes no difference to his action-packed life.

Before I go, I should remind you all that it's Ziggy's birthday today. If you see her, please treat her like a princess (as if that's not what we already do every day).

Thanks for stopping by, friends. Have a great Wednesday.