I Hear Laughter

There is a line in "Out Of Africa" that struck home with me.  "If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans."  Helper Dude brought back the lawn tractor battery after 24 hours on a trickle charge.  It tested full strength.  Turned the key.  Nothing.  He even went home and got a heavy-duty, whiz-bang instant charger.  Turned the key.  Nothing.  Sigh.  I recently got my tax return and have been hoarding it, making wild and wonderful plans on how I would spend my riches after paying Tax Guy, etc.  So much for that.  There is a power tool repair shop close by that I have used before.  I called, knowing this is probably their busiest time of year as everyone and his brother is trying to clear property before fire season.  The nice man told me a couple of things to try and if they didn't help, he would schedule a pick up.  I tried.  They didn't work.  So, the earliest appointment would be two-and-a-half weeks out.  Sigh.  And then I talked to Camille.  Her mower had mysteriously quit on her, she'd made an appointment, and then her little tractor resurrected itself and has been running fine.  She had not canceled and said maybe the nice man would let me have her slot.  And he did!  Fu Manchu will go in for surgery next week.  And the money I'd hoped to spend frivolously will go with him.  Sigh.

I turned Helper Dude loose with his weed-whacker and he cleared huge areas of knee-high weeds, especially down the slope behind the chicken pen.  It's not that I go there often, but those weeds are perfect cover for coyotes and snakes.  I've watched the coyotes sneak up, hoping for a pot pie dinner.  (That's when I go get the gun.)  The weeds are also a fire hazard, and I feel a lot better now that they're gone.

I'm trying something new with the rose predator.  I sprinkled the Tropicana bush liberally with cayenne pepper.  With my luck of late, my squirrels will have a taste for something spicy, but it's worth a try.

Filling the hummer bottles for their evening meal, I saw these gorgeous cloud formations to the northeast.  We've been promised rain, and this looks hopeful.

A bit later, as I finished putting the girls to bed, there were even more promising clouds to the southeast, over toward Yosemite.

About 4:15 this morning, I was awakened by strobe lights visible behind my sleeping eyelids, followed by claps of thunder.  Counting "one Mississippi," I could tell the lightning wasn't close, but didn't want to take a chance so got up and unplugged the computer and we all went back to sleep.  So far, there has been negligible rain, but we can hope.

I'm planning to go to town today, but I'm afraid to say it out loud.