I was taking my son to school this morning when I remarked how my car was covered with yellow pollen.
"And to think we just washed it," he said, which meant he and his buddy sprayed the car for three minutes and then played in the water hose for two hours. If it's 70 degrees, that's considered hose-playing weather down here. At least before the heat, drought and water restrictions kick in.
When that happens, precious plants begin to die, and neighbors turn on each other, some of them reporting their best friends for "suspicious watering" to the water police (local water authorities who've been known to drive around looking for offenders). It's so unfortuate how a lack of rain brings out the worst in us. Neighbors start commenting, "Have you noticed how GREEN their yard is?" while casting knowing glances. Even protests of "But I have a well!" doesn't seem to phase the local water snitches. During the drought, you'd better hope your lawn doesn't look good.
In addition during the past two dry summers, the park's recycled fountain was turned off for fear someone would think the water commission was wasting water. Since we didn't join a pool last year, and the kids weren't allowed to play in the sprinkler, I ended up filling a storage bin with water. My son and his friend spent all day swimming in it as if it were a pool. I wonder, does that make him/me a redneck?
Anyway, this weekend, we were able to get the cars washed, thanks to child labor. I looked out once and saw my son's friend scrubbing one of the vehicles with a tiny paintbrush that he found. I didn't stop him.
"Thanks for washing it," I told my son this morning. "It looked good."
"You're welcome," he said. "I couldn't wash Dad's windows because they were rolled down."
"You mean you washed his truck while the windows were down?"
"Yes, ma'am, but we were real careful not to get any water inside."
Ah, well, at least we have water, thanks to a nice amount of rain this year. By the way, my flowers are beautiful. Let's hope I can keep them that way without too much gossip!
3 comments:
It used to not be bad in Virginia, but the last few years we have had some severe droughts, have been on water restrictions and YES that is when the gossip & nastiness comes out in those sweet little old ladies that love you so much when you are helping clear debris out of their yard or just visiting them to give them company.
At the fire dept we MUST train. If we don't, well, put it this way, when a house is on fire, people seem to prefer that we know what we're doing.
We even train in a very water conserving way. We draft water out of creeks and ponds and then practice working the equipment and the hoses by flowing the water BACK into the pond. You still would be AMAZED how many people call county officials to complain.
Somehow I think that if it was their house on fire, they wouldn't take kindly to have untrained, water conserving fire fighters trying to put out the fire. ie, "...sorry maam, we've reached our water quota for the day, but if your house is still burning tomorrow, we'll be back...."
Opps, am I rambling? Looks like I've written a post in your comment section.
Enjoy the water....and get them to wash the car again tomorrow.
Have a great evening!
I'm glad to hear from you. It is amazing that folks say something about firefighters! I had no idea. It's another rainy day here in Georgia, but I'm not complaining. Have a great day.
I have such nice memories of playing with a hose in the backyard as a kid. We'd take turns holding it and running though the spray.
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