My rant for the day, April 3 2024 (actually, it began yesterday, which was a Tuesday) Actually Monday evening, when a promised thunderstorm failed to drop more than just a sprinkling of rain here.
sigh...
I live in a subdivision. An old country boy moved to town, still not found 'my place or way' and completely ignorant of the ways of city people, who live in their cookie cutter homes, on their cookie cutter streets, and for the most part stay in their cookie cutter back yards behind 6' tall wooden privacy fences and try not to speak with anyone for fear they might be zombies or "Gasp!" old Marines in a subdivision and town chock-a-block full of former US Army people .

Formerly, I lived as most of you know, out in the wilds, where I could do pretty much as I pleased..burned my garbage at will, used all MY well water I wanted to or needed under rule of capture, drove my truck as I wanted to, massacred beaver and coyotes, killed trees with a passion usually reserved for people in air planes spraying agent orange, and shot up the world with any of a1/2 dozen long guns and my .45 revolver any time of day or night and sometimes twice on Sunday..

No more. I'm in subdivision land, on a 1/4 mile street with 12 houses on it and probably not much more than 24 people on it where The Big Event is watching the garbage trucks with their Giant Claws come on Wednesday (which by the way.. is today. Whoop dee Do, halloo halluu.. The weekly ritual of hearing everyone roll their big green or blue cookie cutter plastique wheeled garbage cans down the cookie cutter driveways and out to the curb from at least a block away in an almost religious like one person solemn procession is a Tuesday evening phenom which I find disheartening at best, like the playing of taps on one more week gone by, in life where there aren't likely all that many more weeks ahead on this mortal coil..

But, I suppose, it's the life I chose... to maintain peace and harmony in the family, wife and I.. and I should get on with this..

We are in drought here in Coryell county Texas ..still and have been for right at 2 uninterrupted years (we moved here May 2022)
On city water that comes from a lake 40 miles East of here, evidently named after a house that was permanent and immovable, with the water's taste and smell almost daily alternating somewhere between chlorine and dead fish. I try not to breathe thru my nose while drinking anything with ice from my ice maker..something about freezing the stuff does things to the 2 part molecular structure and releases, well, I don't know what it is, but not pleasant to this peasant.
Accordingly, we are in water restriction, decreed by those who must be obeyed at the City Utility Administration. You can use all the household water you can afford, as long as it's inside your abode. (water is NOT cheap here) My water bill for February is $162. The water you use in your cookie cutter home is relatively cheap per 1000 gallons, but they also charge you for getting rid of the water that goes down the kitchen and shower drains and that which carries away your feces and urine, which gets turned back into water that makes it's way back to the lake named after a house that is immovable and eventually brought back to your cookiecutter home with it's icemaker to once again assault you nasal passages.

But, outside watering.... Under water restrictions Stage 2, which means we can use all the household water we can afford (and I can a afford a lot) we cannot use any outside water at all except on a specified day of the week (Tuesday for me) and then limited only to 2 hours in the morning or two hours in the late evening, and no washing vehicles, washing down sidewalks or cookie cutter driveways or washing out gutters etc etc etc. Now, I can water all I want all day on Tuesday IF I do it with a garden hose held in my hand. but I have an in-ground sprinkler system.

Now let me state something unequivocally. Even tho I do make at least a minimal effort to fit in here in subdivision land, I really don't give one flyin fornication about impressing my neighbors or the passerbys in their little golf carts on their way to the golf course down the street with a nice green cookie cutter lawn as unlike some in this world, I don't have the narcist gene and don't go on and on about my life in "Hey everyone-Look at what I did!" fashion. But, I do live on a hill, and as all you country folks know, a hill slopes in more than one direction. Mine slopes precipitously toward my neighbor to the East and only slightly less so toward the street, and we do get occasional very heavy rains so I have to have 'something' out there to prevent erosion, otherwise my house, that unlike the one the lake is named after, would slide down the hill and out into the street or gawd forbid, into my neighbor's back yard and disrupt whatever it is he does within the sanctum of his little sphere behind his 6' wooden fence. (Well, It's actually my fence, tho I didn't put it up). (Now somehow, in a quirk of scientifically shrouded geological mystery or a phase shift in gravity, those torrential rains never make their way to the lake that is named after the house that can't be moved by heaven or earth. But I digress, again.

Sunday, after looking at the weather forecast and seeing thunderstorms a very good likelihood for Monday afternoon and into the evening , I put out 10-20-10 fertilize in the front yard-this area is low on phosphorous. I also for the first time this year, set up my sprinkler system to run, but only in the front yard where I fertilized, but hoped for the rain so I wouldn't have to run the sprinkler system.
Since this was the first time I planned on using the sprinklers, I looked Monday morning at the city website to make sure nothing had changed and it showed we were still under Stage 2 so I was good to go for Tuesday if need be. We got only a little sprinkle Monday night that contained a good bit of dirt and dust which covered my white truck which of course I can't wash.

Tuesday morning, I hit the button in the little control box in the garage and the sprinkler system came on as programmed for the front yard, 2 stations to run 20 minutes each.

About 30 minutes later, my doorbell rings and there before me stood 2 men in Copperas Cove Water District uniforms with their nice CLEAN white City of Copperas Cove truck sitting out at the curb. I was informed that "Someone called and reported you were using your sprinkler system!".
(the sprinklers are still running right behind him)
Me: "Well yeah, it's Tuesday, that's MY day."

They hand me 3 sheets of official looking papers and explains that the city went to Stage 4 emergency water restriction Monday, which means only drinking water and hygiene related water can be used.

Me: "I looked at the website yesterday morning and it didn't state that."

He: "Well that's the thing, in the morning we were good but late yesterday morning we had a 24 inch main rupture and finally got it fixed but another burst yesterday around noon and we went into stage 4 immediately"

Me: "Well ok, I better shut that off. Thanks for coming by and telling me"

I shut it off and they left. Doesn't bother me. Doing their job, and they were polite and nice about it.

My Rant:

BUT!! Since almost no one travels my street other than people that live here, it means we have a Water Nazi here on Blue Bird Trail that decided to report me instead of coming to my door and telling me. I know it isn't Col Chuck across the street because he called to tell me he and his wife was leaving for a couple of days Sunday for East Texas to visit his two kids that are in college. So who the heck is it??????
Exactly what kind of butthole calls and reports a neighbor for using water? Degenerate!
No Water For You!

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 04-03-2024).]

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 04-03-2024).]

[This message has been edited by 82-T/A [At Work] (edited 04-03-2024).]