Soap and Water

Today started with a brief bike ride to get the blood flowing before the temperatures became too warm to ride.  We were in the low to mid 70s this morning, so that part went well.  The humidity (91%) certainly caused everything to feel sticky, and by the time we returned home, the wind was starting to pick up enough to be noticeable when we rode against it.  Overall, though, the bike ride felt good, so I am glad that we took the time to start our day doing something good for us.

After the ride, we did not bother to get cleaned up.  Instead, we took soap and water and started to apply it to the fence.  White vinyl fences are great: they look good on both sides (no "front" or "back" since both sides look the same), they don't fade in the sun, and they don't warp with the weather.  However, they do get dirty.  Mud splatters up from the ground, grass clippings get stuck to the bottom panel, dirt gets blown into every pour, birds love to leave droppings on the top, and small lizards leave their own brown-spotted calling cards everywhere on the fence.  Intermittent hosing down of the worst debris helps, but occasionally a good scrubbing is necessary.

We started that process today.  We had cleaned the fence when we first came down in October, but the south side fence, in particular, begged for a bath.  Rick used a soap solution that we use on the car to scrub the panels and then rinse them off with the hose.  I found that taking a rag, not wringing it out, and just swabbing down the panels worked just as effectively as the soap.  In both cases, cleaning off the brown "lizard-dots" just takes a little extra elbow-grease.  We have the gate, top of the south side, and about half of the panels completed.  Then the sun started to come around, so we quit for the day.

Once again, the weathermen have promised us some rain.  I have my doubts, but we will see.  The radar shows that most of it appears to be north of us once again.  This was supposed to be a colder and wetter winter than normal.  I admit that the weather IS abnormal, but we are getting just the opposite: warmer than normal temperatures with less than normal rainfall.  Go figure. So much for the science of meteorological forecasts!

We have been talking about adding lights on either side of our garage door for added illumination when we come back to Gladys after dark.  I know that Rick is more than capable of wiring something that will work.  Cutting through the cement block wall will be a little bit of a hassle, but it is doable. Finding the right lights and figuring out where we want to have the switch will take more research.

Rick suggested that perhaps we could "give" each other the lights for our 40th wedding anniversary which is coming up January 2.  I think not. If he knows what is good for our marriage, he will come up with a better plan.