My favorite season

Rain in all the wrong places

Cheers to rain!

With that said, the 24-hour sky dripping has created a handful of nuisances.

Garage door freak out

Our garage door is on the fritz. As soon as the rain began, the door's safety mechanism decided it wouldn't allow the door to shut remotely. I tinkered with the laser pointer at the bottom of the door, hoping to eventually get the green safety light to stay solid to no avail.

There is nothing blocking the ray in the doorway. My only thought is that maybe the relatively high moisture from the rain created some fogging on the inside of the lens, tricking it into thinking there was something that could die as the door fell.

Arachnophobia

While moving a pile of rocks from the bottom of our back bank I found a nasty tunneling spider (what is the real name for that sucker?) and a Black Widow. As I watched the water flow down our yard I wished it would drown them so I could finish the job.

I guess we need more rain for that. And I guess I need to find a way to get them out of my rock pile so I can move it.

Front porch drip

On the way down our roof, somehow a portion of the rain makes it under some shingles on our front porch and drips through the overhang onto the front steps. I don't think it is affecting the structure of our roof, only the last foot or two. I think it may be that the shingles aren't properly tucked together in the groove that separates the angle of the porch roof and the angle of the garage roof.

We rarely enter from the front porch, but now that our garage door is being a pain it is more evident that we should probably take care of the leak.

Where oh where did my water go?

The grass is the least of my worries.

Now I'm more concerned with the thought of showering with gallons of Wally World water or not showering at all. It's a desert outside and people still insist on watering their grass.

I asked the husband the other day why he thought people would sneak out to water their yards in neighborhoods with mandatory restrictions. His response: They're selfish.

They may have invested thousands in keeping their lawn bright green and plush, but when you have to brush your teeth with Diet Pepsi you probably won't care how green your yard is. (OK it probably won't get that bad, but my mind does wander.)

I've never seen a drought get this bad. I have a lot of questions.

Do houses with well water contribute to the water shortage?

What exactly is water rationing?

Is it going to turn into absolute anarchy as people fight for the last gallons? Will they rush the stores like the year of the Furby?

As I drove to work today I watched a crew power washing a sign in front of Kmart. I wonder if they used drinking water for that?

What happens when it's all gone?

Go team!

Yes, it's football season. But I have a different team I'm pulling for.

I'm pulling for nearly a dozen homes for sale in our neighborhood. Before we bought our house I thought "comps" were free things media staff received to get into things for free. Now I know "comps" are a sneaky way our neighbors have a hand in our home equity.

There are two houses for sale directly across the street from our home. Both were in bad shape, but maybe if I make my front yard nice enough it will be like a 12th man to get top dollar for them.

Why do I care?

I want my neighbors to sell for a lot, and quickly. DOMs (days on the market) can tell you a lot about a housing market. Namely, how easy is it to sell the house. If it sits for sale for months, that's way worse than it selling within a week or two.

I understand our neighborhood is in its first depression. Most of the homes were built since 2000, and I think many of the homes for sale in the last year were due to foreclosures, which I assume is due to adjustable rate mortgages whose rates jumped after an introductory period.

It's a lot of assuming, but I think things will only go up from here. New construction is planned (although I don't know if that's a good idea considering how many for sale signs I've seen in the city on my daily commute).

Another assumption is that most of these homes are starter homes and the families are outgrowing them. It's about their time to move up and out.

More power to them. That will be us in a year (maybe more).

So to all of you with signs in your front yard, I'm rooting for you. When you win, we all win.

High five, Statesville!

If I forget to shut the garage door on the way to work I have a built-in insurance plan: my husband doesn't leave for work until several hours later. I admit it, I forget.

Today the mighty husband faltered. At first I didn't believe it. I thought I had opened the door by my remote and just forgotten in the 30 seconds between the corner and the garage (believe me, it's possible). I would have continued to believe that I forgot I opened the door until indisputable evidence presented itself: the postman left a package on the door from our garage inside our house. He could have only gotten in there if the door was open.

Holy moly! I'm not picking on the husband because I obviously have a memory made of chocolate pudding. After a small "hurray!" for not being forgetful this time, I quickly surveyed our worldly belongings.

Lawn mower? Still there. Weed eater? Check.

Pegboard full of super awesome power tools? Present.

Broken TV we keep forgetting to take to the recycling center? Yep.

That is awesome. I forgot to lock the front door the other night and nothing bad happened. We forgot to shut the garage and left home for more than four hours and nothing bad happened.

I'm not saying we are getting lazy about our home security, but after the crime scares I hear so often in the newsroom, it's nice to know that Statesville just may be a place where you can keep your door unlocked.

I love our little cookie-cutter community. Neighbors wave. They cook out. They play in the street. They give me a great taste of Statesville.

And they don't snoop through open garages.

Save the water

It seems we're drying up. My grass sounds like Pop Rocks under my feet and it's all we hear about on the news (just imagine how much MORE you'll hear about an issue when you work in news).

Always striving to do my part, I vowed to cut down water usage.

Instead of running a shower just to shave my legs (it's getting to be pants weather, which means this practice is almost out of season), I decided to stop up the tub and keep the stubble water. I then decided instead of going to the gym I ran a gallon pitcher up and down the stairs, transporting the stubble water to the outside flower beds surrounding my newly-planted perennials and mums.

After more than a dozen rounds I felt pretty proud.

Now I'm way too conscious of my water usage.

There were some things I already did that also conserved water.

I don't run dishwashers or washing machines until I have full loads to wash. I don't shower daily (before you run screaming from my stubbly-legged stench, realize people with super-thick hair shouldn't wash it daily for risk of drying it out). I don't water my lawn and I don't wash my car with a hose.

But I took it a step further.

I now turn off the water when brushing my teeth (For me this is huge. I hate seeing spit in the sink).

I toss all the discarded water on the parched flowers (think of the girl from "Signs" with all the nearly empty cups laying around the house and you have a good image of what our living room looks like on any given day).

I stopped trying to rinse every chunk from our dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.

And there you have it! I at least think I'm doing my part in times of drought, and it really wasn't that painful. Well, unless you have to rub my legs. That would be painful...