Rain?

I went outside a little while ago to start watering plants.

I noticed the sky to the east dark and looking like rain.
Well, I went out front anyway - I didn't water the front yesterday - and decided to water that at least and let the rest go.
After that, came back in here and looked at Doppler and Satellite - if it's any indication, we're in for a decent rain and a good ground saturation.

I haven't seen rain in so long, I desperately hope it does! Not just for my plants, but for ME!!

I just checked Doppler again - it's right near my house now. PULLLLEEEASSSSE God - make it rain!

When I went out there, and after only a few minutes into watering - the wind started picking up. We used to call them dust storms. The reason being is that you would see a wall of dust a mile high coming in at you. You also ran for cover - a lot of stuff would be flying all over the place. Not anymore. They're wind storms I guess you could call them - the dust has been reduced greatly over the years because the outlying areas have been developed and now there's a lot of asphalt/cement/landscaping instead of open desert.

A nice "perk" if you want to call it that is that these storms almost always blow in colder air. I don't mean cold per se, just cooler than it was. It was 113 degrees a half hour ago, now it's 109. No, I checked it again - the storm is about 10 to 20 miles away judging from Doppler and the temp has now dropped to 108. May sound hot - yes - but the point is that my AC runs less at lessor temps. I'll take that anyday - tomorrow is forecast to be 115 degrees. I won't take that any day : (

Darn - the wind has started to die down and the rain is JUST around the corner.

Well, anyway, I have a cigar. I buy them - infrequently - very infrequently. He gets a deal on quantity cigars - he smokes them every day - and lets me in on the deal whenever I want one. This time? "Buy me lunch when I've over there next time" - referring to my store. I didn't have any money on me - I really try not to carry too much cash with me, lesson learned from years of excessive, wasteful spending (I think that must have been something I learned from the feds) - just don't have it with you. Sure, I have debit and credit cards - I'm pretty disciplined at this point to NOT waste money on needless things.

So, at the advice of fully 2 separate store employees at - 2 different stores - I will drink a bud tomorrow while - if I get everything of course - install the valve and copper portions of the beginning of the system. If all goes well, the cigar comes afterwards : ) I love cigars - though they make me quite high on nicotine. Sometimes to the point I feel like getting sick ............. I sorta learned the hard way to smoke half the cigar at one point and then the rest another day. In other words, cut it in half and have to times the pleasure. I am not advocating cigar smoking - just a nice thing to do once in a great while.

The storm is headed south and is going to bypass my immediate area. However, there was one huge effect: a decrease of temperature by fully 11 degrees in less than one hour's time! Nice.

G'nite.

ben

Friday

Just pondering things before I get started with the work day.
I heard an ad this morning on the radio that was pretty nice.
Frito Lay has announced (at least locally, no idea if it's nationwide) that they are going to start ADDING 20% more product to every bag of chips for however long - WITHOUT raising the price.
It's their offering for people getting hurt by the failing economy.
I find that especially refreshing because many companies have gone the other route - take product OUT and leave the price the same.
You HAVE noticed that a package of hot dogs no longer comes in a 10-pack, didn't you? The price stayed the same: 8 for the price of ten, such a great deal!
Cereal companies are notorious for making the packaging look as though there is all kinds of cereal in it - when in fact many of the have reduced the amount - by weight - of content.

I kinda hope that this is a nationwide thing and that it will raise the bar for other companies to follow suit. Frito Lay has a huge manufacturing plant down in Casa Grande - I've been there a dozen times at least delivering pipe and materials when they were doing some sort of expansion project. A company that makes that kind of offering is a company whose product I'll buy - the boys love that stuff anyway.

This weekend's plans are simple: start the installation project for the drip watering system. The beginning of the project is the hardest AND the most expensive. You can spend a LOT of money on the timer and other items necessary to install the system - I think I have found a balance of good product that isn't astronomical in the price. Certainly the plumbing projects will be much cheaper than most people can get stuff like that - I just happen to work for a company whose plumbing division is purportedly the largest in America. We get stuff at cost a 6% bump.

I have decided that all exposed parts must either be brass or copper, not PVC. The sun is brutal towards plastic pipe around these parts - stuff like that will not be long-lived if exposed to the summer sun and heat on a daily basis. Anyway, my boss is bringing his personal equipment for sweating the copper stuff together with him to work today - which is pretty cool. I used to have all of that stuff, but certain theives decided to get their hands on it and it = whoooof = disappeared into thin blue air.

So, with that I have to make a trip to the plumbing branch today for some items we don't have here. Easy enough. What I thought amusing yesterday was my trip to Sprinkler World and Home Depot. When I was talking with the guys about how I should go about installing this system, they both said to go home, sit down at a table, get out a piece of paper and pen, get a beer and start making the plans. I'm serious, they BOTH said it's FAR more fun to have beers with the project than to not. Now, I wasn't even thinking in the terms of adult recreational beverage, hearing it from both of them made me want to go look into a mirror to ensure that the word Budweiser wasn't stamped on my forehead!

Well, I have a couple of articles I want to read before signing in for work and I only have 5 minutes left.
Have a great day!
ben