Rocks And Toad And Hurricane

Murphy
Tired of surprise
Made a law

And of course, the rest is history for the rest of us. The best laid plan is the one that gets done. The rest are foundations for wishful thinking.
This entry actually starts with a hurricane. It ended for us as a tropical storm and brought a couple of inches of rain within a couple of days. Not too bad actually. Summer’s typical scorching heat was abated by about ten-to-fifteen degrees Fahrenheit. Very nice.
The downpour was an early reminder that I needed to address a pooling issue at the rear of the house. There is one corner that gathers a confluence of flows from the hillside. It becomes overly saturated and the interior bathroom concrete will put off a water-saturated odor. It’s not offensive. You just know it needs fixing.
So, I went to work. Digging. Why not, the soil was nice and wet, easy, right? Well, yes and no. It is evident that someone had attempted to address the issue previously. Much of the ground was removed, then mixed with 3/4″ crushed rock and then returned. This would allow water to flow into the soil below without too much pooling. It’s a good fix for 85% of So Cal “rains” which are light sprinkles.
The fix is to create an underground gutter of rock with a 3″ perforated pipe to divert the water to a nearby drain already in place. The design is based on the classic “French” drain, but not as deep. It’s more of a swale. We did this at our other property with good success.
After making a visit to our landscape irrigation supplier for materials, I headed off to a rock supplier and ordered two cubic yards to be delivered. They were great and delivered it within two hours after ordering it. The driver got it to the top of the driveway and we were off and running. Robin and I shoveled/wheelbarrowed the (approximately) five-thousand pounds of rock to the side of the house. By that time it was so hot, we were done for the day. “Hit it hard tomorrow” was the plan.
That evening, I developed a scratchy throat and stuffy nose, but felt fine and slept well.
I woke feeling tired and “spaced.” Not good. I knew right away what was happening but hoped it wasn’t true. Gathering up my tools, I went to work. I threw a digging bar for a few minutes then started to flat shovel the channel for the swale. Dizziness started to set in and a feeling of exhaustion. “I have to stop.” “What?” “I have to stop, I’m sick, no way, man!”
The test confirmed. It’s C-19.
That was four days ago. Now my poor Robin has it too.
I’ve heard many compare it to a “bad cold.” (2) days fever, cough, congestion, brain inflammation, sneezing, severe tendon pain (work exasperated), complete exhaustion, headache, nausea, (3) days chills (sweater on at 75 degrees), the list goes on. Yup a bad cold. A real bad cold.
Although, today feels like a breakthrough day. WOOHOO!

“Let’s rock.”

Tomorrow’s promise:

As for the hurricane, the day before its arrival, Robin woke me up and asked, “do you have cameras set up outside?” Occasionally I will make time lapse videos of stars and such and they put off a little light. She thought that was what she saw. “No,” was my it’s-five-in-the-morning-what-are-you-talking-about answer. “Look, you need to see this.”
Oh… ok …what?
So off in the distance, behind the mountains was a magnificent electrical storm. It lit up the night horizon wonderfully. It was too far off to hear any thunder. Still it was fantastic.

As for the opening image. Just more weirdness. This little toad insisted it was a frog and kept ending up in the pool. I kept removing it only to find it back in there. Last I looked, he was still gone.
Crazy.