Not A Good Day

6:57

6:58

7:05

7:25

A strange morning, as it's clouded up, started to rain but only for a few minutes and now the sun has peaked out from above the mass of gray clouds.  It's a balmy 50º, with more rain to come and increasingly warm temperatures during the day.

Rain At 7:48

Sun At 8:02

Yesterday began well, as we both had a leisurely morning coffee, planning out our day.  Around 10:30, I noticed our neighbor was working on the tree that had fallen a few weeks ago, so I went down to offer my help and ended up talking with three other neighbors all about the typical disputes that accompany a neighborhood association, this time about a shared dock at the rightaway.  Cest la vie.  When I came home to get some gloves, Evie told me we had no water.  So began the process of trying to figure out what had gone wrong.  It seemed as though it had just stopped and was not a result of a running faucet or toilet.  We worked on priming the pump, called one plumber who could not come, then our usual, Klingingsmith's who just happened to be leaving a house in Victoria, a quarter of a mile away.  He came right over, fussed with the pump and diagnosed a bad pump which sits underground, alas.  So Monday, our plumbers will arrive early, take the old pump out of the well and put in the new one and we will pray that's all that is wrong because we noticed lots of water in and around the well which seemed to suggest a broken water line.  If that's true, they will have to dig up our yard to fix it.  The joys of home ownership.  Anyways, I did manage to help my neighbor for an hour before he called it a quits.

The rest of the day was mostly a loss as we were both depressed at the need for a new pump and the lack of water in our house.  We could use the lake water to flush our toilets but we would need more drinking water so I went off to Wegmans and bought 10 gallons of drinking water, more than enough to get us through a couple of days.  And I stopped at Home Depot to pick up some fertilizer for our privets and bushes.

When I got home, I had lost my mojo, both from the bad news, working in the yard, and a quick trip to the store so I virtually collapsed on the couch, tried to read but fell asleep for a good long nap.  I woke up an hour later refreshed, and decided to go outside and work on enlarging our parking space. I had to skim the grass off of the new area which took awhile, then spread the stones I have had sitting in my car for a couple of days.  I finished around 5:00 and it looks good and will be easier for anyone who wants to park in our area.

We were at sixes and sevens about dinner, finding it difficult whether to stay in or go out.  After deciding to stay in, I changed my mind and said let's go out to the Stockton Inn for a beer and a burger.  That sounded good to Evie so we quickly washed up as best we could and drove off to Stockton, a 17 mile jaunt.  We were there on a Sunday three weeks ago and liked it and were not disappointed  It was a hopping place, with families waiting to be seated, the bar mostly full and we found two seats easily.  I had a burger,  Evie soup, and we both shared french fries and onion rings, another healthy meal to go along with a beer or two.  We enjoyed talking with the friendly bartender, Brett, and learned that he makes his own beer and is trying to grow hops.  So we are going to put him in touch with our good friend, Jack, who is a veteran hop grower and knows all the ins and outs.

We got home around 9:00 and watched Real Time With Bill Maher, then the Correspondent's dinner, with the highlight being Comedy Central's Hasan Minhaj giving the usual comedic speech.  It lacked the drama of other years because of the Donald's absence.  As usual, Donald was busy bragging and boasting about his greatness as well as lambasting the fake news media.  He ended his talk with a dramatic reading of his favorite poem, 'The Snake", "classy and appropriate."  Some things never change.