Water Woes

 After spending a lot of time and money to get our well pump on the critical panel for the solar battery in case of a power shut off, we finally managed to ensure that we didn't have to drag buckets of water from the hot tub in order to flush the toilet. Now, in what feels like the ultimate irony, we are in extreme drought conditions, water rationing is imminent and we find ourselves dragging grey water from the shower outside to water the plants. 

On the street we take to get into town the sign in the thumbnail has appeared. I have no idea what a vortex tube is, but Santa Rosa creek is the one across the street from our house which rises on Hood Mountain behind us,  and runs all the way to the Laguna de Santa Rosa, the floodplain between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol. Excess water can be discharged into Spring Lake, so we think vortex tube is just a fancy name for how this is accomplished. Right now, excess water in Santa Rosa Creek is hardly an issue. Perhaps that is why they are laying new pipes  and rebuilding a series of small dams around the bridge that crosses the creek now. 

As always, it  fascinates me that on projects like this there are a lot of pieces of heavy equipment, a lot of people setting up traffic cones and directing traffic, and workers milling around but not appearing to be doing much....

I called our buddy Aaron at the outdoor furniture store to find out the latest on our two dining chairs ordered at the end of February. They are now scheduled to be shipped from the East Coast on July 30th. Aaron told me that nobody is getting anything that has to be shipped from abroad, because all the container ships are sitting somewhere in San Francisco Bay waiting to be unloaded. It is especially hard on small businesses like his because they are at the bottom of the pecking order behind places like Walmart. 

We decided to get Spike (and us) out of the house while the house cleaner was here today with her big red vacuum. We probably should have chosen someplace a little calmer for lunch than the Barlow, a destination tourist place with lots of restaurants, galleries and tasting rooms. Between the people, kids, bikes, and dogs, Spike was beside himself. We sat on a bench and attempted to eat our messy sandwiches from take-out containers on our laps whilst keeping Spike from charging innocent passersby. It was not a complete success although Spike did seem to be getting the message...until we had to walk back to the car.

We all came home and took a nap, big red vacuum and all....