No fish pond for me!

Okay, so I wait all day to hear from the city about the water leak in my yard.  They never call.  I get home this afternoon and there's a little swamp growing out there!  AND water is bubbling out of the ground!  I call the water department back but of course, it's after 5:00 and they're closed so they connect me with 911 and I feel a little guilty when she answers, "Houston County 911, what's your emergency?" and I say, "I got water in my yard" but what can I do?  They connected me!

I tell her that I just want somebody to come out and tell me whose responsibility it is so I can get it fixed if it's mine 'cause it's GUSHING WATER EVERYWHERE OH MY GOD AND I'M A HIPPIE TREEHUGGER AND IT'S KILLING ME FOR THAT MUCH WATER TO JUST BE GUSHING LIKE THAT DON'T YOU CARE ANYTHING ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT????????

She said she'd get somebody out here as soon as she could.

He shows up about 6:00 and told me and my neighbor, David, who'd already offered to fix it for me, that it was indeed my responsibility BUT that he would dig it out for us.  And he did and he wrote down everything we'd need and stayed until about 6:45 talking to us and telling us what to do.

I took his little list to Lowe's, got the stuff, went by Sonic and got some supper and came back and David and his daddy fixed it!!  In about two hours!!  What a wonderful neighbor I have!!  On THAT side, anyway.  On the other side, uh-uh.

Here are a few pics!!

 A root had cracked the coupling in the pipe

(They saved me the cracked coupling as a souvenir.

I told 'em I was gonna put it on my mantel.  Ha!

What's funny is I probably will.)

 

Here's some dirt!  :)

 David calling his daddy

Brand spankin' new coupling!

I don't know when the leak started but I'm guessing it's been a few weeks.  It just took a while for it to break through the ground.  Coincidentally, my water bill came today and it was $5 more than it usually is and showed that I used 160 more gallons this month than I used last month.  'Cause it was leaking into the ground!!  I can't stand the thought of 160 gallons of water just wasted like that!!  Next month's bill should be a doozy.  Oh well, it's fixed now and I learned a LOT.  I think I could even do it by myself next time!!

I'm just gonna throw a couple of fish in there...

 

...and have my very own goldfish pond like Mama and Daddy have!

I came home today to this little puddle in my front yard.  We haven't had rain in days so there must be a leak in the line somewhere.  I called the city and they're going to come out tomorrow and look at it.

I hope it's something they'll take care of but it's closer to my house (like RIGHTTHERE) than it is the road where the meter is so it's probably going to end up being my responsibility.  Oh, the joys of homeownership!  

Today I...

...finally got something at Aldi that I don't like.

Two skint-up toes

I went this morning to get a few things and when I opened the door to the refrigerated case to get a carton of eggs, the door opened on top of my foot.  Owwww!!  And I absolutely had on flip flops.  Y'all remember that if you go to the store in Warner Robins.  The door opens low and it has a sharp edge!

...cooked a pot of cabbage and ham and tried cooking brown rice in the crock pot.  Both turned out great!

I love brown rice but I don't like for it to be crunchy.

Three hours on high in the crock pot gets it just right!

...'bout decided to call Channel 13 on MGT.

When I started the electronics program at Middle Georgia Tech in April of last year, I was told that if I came to class, studied and maintained a 4.0 average, I was in the co-op program.  The golden job at Robins Air Force Base, where you work six months and go to school six months until you graduate.  We all were told that.  Guess what?  It wasn't true.  It was a hoAX, as my old buddy, Lewis Grizzard, used to say.  As soon as we were all eligible for the co-op (six months in, 4.0 average, blahblahblah) in December, my friend, Caitlin, and I (the only girls left in our class by then!) were accidentally left off the interview list so we didn't get our first shot until March.  The base interviewed 80 students and hired 11.  All guys.  Okay, so then we get our second shot, right?  We wait until after we finished up the linear electronics class in May and were told our interview would be in June.  Then it was pushed back until after the semester starts in September and TODAY, I get an email (well, I got it last week, I just didn't check my school email until today) telling us it's going to be the end of November.  I will finish and graduate in December.  I am almost done!!  And this illusive base job, that I'm not even sure that I ever wanted to begin with, is STILL a carrot danglin' in front of my face.

Why am I letting them do this to me??  I'm 'bout ready to call Lorra and let her come do a story and expose them for the fake they are.  They are still lying to students, still promising base jobs when there ARE NONE and are still enjoying record enrollment because they lyin'.  Still getting that HOPE Grant and Pell Grant money.  Still selling textbooks for $100 a piece.  It's infuriating.

I do not believe that things happen accidentally.  I believe that every rejection is God's protection so I'm not too very upset about this.  I see His Hand all in it.  He knows me, He knows my heart.  There are lots of places I can use my electronics education and do good.  Or not.  Maybe I won't ever use it.  But I know that I'll never think of the past sixteen months as a waste of my time.  I have learned so much about a field that previously, I knew absolutely nothing about and I've learned so much about myself, that I CAN do something besides finance.  And I CAN do trig!

Fill in the blank Friday!

The TV show that I watch and would be embarrassed to tell anyone about is probably not a TV show.  I only watch a few shows regularly, True Blood, Rescue Me and The Office.  BUT I watch a truckload of Lifetime movies and yeah, they're kinda hokey.  Larry calls that The Manhater Channel.  Ha!  I swannee, though, once you sit down and watch one, you've watched three before you realize it.  Especially on the weekends.  Or is that just me?  :)

An item of clothing that is worn and torn but that I love far too much to throw away is a pair of black cotton pajama shorts that I got at Target six years ago.  They are most raggedy.  Big old hole in the butt and everything.  I sleep in 'em just about every night.  I love 'em.  

My grocery store impulse buy is nail polish.  I go in there to get a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread, maybe some bananas and I'll find myself in the cosmetic aisle every time!!  I only polish my toes and since I'm barefoot more often than I'm not and when I'm not, my toes are still showing 'cause I've got on flip flops or sandals, they got to be pretty, right??  

One thing in my life that I could give up but probably never will is Facebook.  I'm totally addicted.  I love expressing myself through my statuses and comments, keeping in touch with my friends and family that I don't get to see very much and just last week, I created a page to bring all my hometown folks together.  It's been so much fun reminiscing and talking about home and sharing memories.  400+ members and still growing!!

A little indulgence I have is a Dairy Queen cone every Sunday afternoon.  Yeah, that's probably why I haven't lost any weight this summer!  I leave Larry at 3:00 and just as a treat on Sundays, I'll stop at DQ and get a vanilla cone.  And sometimes, I'll get it dipped.  :)

The junk drawer/area in my house is virtually nonexistent!  I can't stand clutter!  I do have a utility drawer in my kitchen where I keep extra batteries, matches, a couple of flashlights and my collection of loose screws and nails but even that drawer is neat and organized.  

If you looked in my purse right this second, you would find a small makeup bag filled to capacity with the necessary makeup should one get caught in a torrential downpour and have to redo her face lest she scare folks, a small bottle of contact lens solution and a contact lens case, a spare pair of contacts, a pack of tissues, my old-school address book that still has my sweet mother-in-law's address and phone number in it and for that reason, I'll probably never get rid of it, my silver opera wallet that Ami gave me for Christmas last year that I LOVE, my checkbook with the hippie-peace-love-happiness cover that I bought on Etsy, six blue ink pens, my cell phone and my Canon PowerShot camera.

And yes, my pocketbook weighs 53 pounds.  :)

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

 Today is my daddy's birthday!  It's a big one, too.  

In dog years, he'd be like 455 years old!!  Ha!

 

Happy, happy birthday, Daddy!!!

I hope you have a day as wonderful and fun as you are!! 

I love you very much!!! 

What I'm loving Wednesday!

 

A Wendy's baked potato for lunch!

I have just been craving these lately.  99 cents is a very frugal lunch!  :)  I added my own no-cal spray butter, lowfat sour cream and fresh chives that I grew from seed in my laundry room windowsill.  Yum!!

 

And there's THIS today! 

 

CURRENT CONDITIONS

Macon, GA (31201)

88°F (31°C)

Clear

Humidity:	55%
Feels Like:	93°F
Wind:	9 mph

88 degrees and low, low humidity. Well, low for Georgia. It feels not even a little bit like fall but much, much better than yesterday.  :)

Sammy

For about five or six summers now, I've had a housemate.  Well, a porchmate, anyway.  A little lizard that I call Sammy.  He lives in a crack in the concrete on my porch stoop, just under the front door.  

I've talked about him to Larry and to my family but until today, I never got a picture of him.

I realize that this is more than very likely NOT my original Sammy but probably his great-great grandchild but I was still happy to finally snap him!  I've been carrying my camera around with me all the time since we started doing the scavenger hunts last month and when he shook his little bright blue tail at me today, I was ready. 

 I googled him and he's a blue tail sandveld (or skink).

He looks like he'd just had lunch, too!  Fat little belly!!

 Ain't he beautiful??