one of them days

I had plans and lists, but at 8:28 pm I don't have much to show for it.

I started the day with a visit from a water resources engineer, plus a similarly-credentialed engineer from the State, because the brook is about to invade my yard and damage my septic system. This repair must be done by pros, because there is no place on the property for another septic system.

We had 30 minutes of very interesting conversation about the properties of water running downhill, and the 2007 flood, and the size of the culvert (it should be bigger, but the town will not replace it unless it fails, and it's pretty solid), and the beaver dam way up at the interstate that is causing repeated problems. In the end, though, I got the words I wanted to hear from the state engineer.

1. "Of course the stream bed needs to be dredged, and it needs to be done before winter."
2. "You do not need a permit, just engineering plans."

What great  news!! The private engineer is knowledgeable, understands budgets, and came well-recommended. He'll draw up plans by mid-June and after Residency is over I'll call contractors to see who will bid. I will take pictures, because this is likely to be interesting. Apparently this work is in the $5,000 - $6,000 range. Not cheap. But a new septic system is almost impossible.

Then I went to the dump, to the hardware store to buy a wheelbarrow (finding the one I want on sale!), read work emails, snacked, did the laundry, did work emailing, ate lunch, did a little non-email work, asked my upstreet neighbor to help me get my obstinate, stubborn horse started, went to Thelma's to pay attention to said obstinate horse, visited Thelma, and really frittered the day away. When I'm done with this entry I will complete the frittering by watching the latest Netflix item, "The Truman Show".

It was hard to get enthused about the day because until 5pm it looked like the rain would pour down any minute. It's also hard to get enthused when on May 2 it was like summer, and now it's May 14, we had a hard frost on Monday night, and we're still lighting our woodstoves. And it's in the 80s in Florida.

Oh! I forgot about the aloe plant.  Stalks are longer, buds are larger.  Yes, it's touched the ceiling and is bending over. Click the picture and it will enlarge.