Finally Some Rain

 So after a beautiful season of cool weather that lasted into the beginning of May, the heat came on. Strong. And it was dry -- walking around outside I was reminded of my two trips to Vegas, one in June and one in July. And rain was a distant memory -- just hot all day and all night -- most evenings the mercury didn't reach down to the 70s.

I walked only in the early mornings, and stayed in, mostly. But finally, this afternoon, there's a raging thunderstorm, and a forecast for a more normal weather pattern -- 90 as a high in the day, and down to 70s at night.

Wifey is busily at work, now with TWO friends helping to declutter and decorate. The painter came today -- apparently our dining room ceiling needs to become high gloss. What do I know?

Also, the perfectly working bathroom fixtures have to go, along with the tile in fine shape. The compromise of marriage, I am told. I'm sure I'll admire the modernization, and with the Bull Market, our assets can handle the spending, so there it goes.

Meanwhile, a nice young fellow came today from our homeowner's company -- to inspect our bathrooms and roof. We've somehow kept our insurance, including windstorm, with only modest premium increases. Not so our neighbors Jeff and Lili -- USAA wanted over $35K to insure their home.

If that happens to me, I'll drop the storm coverage, too -- keeping only a policy that gives us fire and theft coverage and the essential component, liability coverage. Wifey started asking me all about this, got bored, and walked away. I wish someone else would take care of it, too -- Wifey is correct, as usual.

The inspector was nice -- I guess I'll find out in November if Frontline wants to drop me or try to rob me. That's ok -- the truth is the house is built much better than the one we had "mistroyed," as 3 year old D1 said, in Andrew. And with the absurd values, we can afford to replace the roof -- it only has 3-5 years left, anyway.

Finally, I was never sure that a catastrophic storm would leave our carrier solvent, anyway, and as a "non registered company" we wouldn't get the $300K coverage the state provides. Ah -- the joys of homeownership in South Florida.

So soon the painter will be painting, the contractors will be banging, and my peaceful house will no longer be. As I have figured out, though, with women of a certain age, they need CHANGE. Men of a certain age, at least this one, want NO CHANGE. And in the war of change versus no change, change seems to win.

Meanwhile, life goes on. Old friends posted a photo of their son, who used to be friends with D2, on Facebook, at his wedding. He married a dude, so I inferred he was gay. At least I still have those intellectual functions intact.

All I could think of was the great line Jack Nicholson spoke about being gay: "If I could just stomach the sex part -- it would have made my life so much easier."

Eh -- probably not true. I know plenty of gay guys who would demand even MORE decoration projects than Wifey. And I probably couldn't get away with being overweight and poorly dressed, either. So I got that going for me.

Time to retire to the front porch, and watch some of that beautiful Spring rain. It indeed nourishes.