Something fishy


new paintFirst it was a small one last week.  Then it was a medium-sized one this week.  ¿Qué Pasa?  Maybe the mollies are dying of natural causes.  I keep the tank clean and I don’t see any signs of some pathology on the fish live or dead.  These are the first two fatalities since we set up the aquarium nearly a year ago so maybe we’ve just been lucky so far.  It isn’t as though the population can’t afford a couple of losses, given the rate of procreation.

Speaking of procreation, we’ve heard toads singing in the pond since the demise of Lonesome Toad so apparently he wasn’t the last of them.  At Parker’s birthday party recently I talked to John T about my desire to introduce leopard frogs into the water garden.  His place backs up to a field where there is a drainage ditch and low spot that tends to hold water and the natural aquatic life that goes with such an environment.  It may be the remnants of a playa.  It is greatly reduced due to the drought but John thought there might still be some frogs there.  He said he would send his son Blake to investigate and apprehend any suspects that he could.  There was a self-sustaining population of leopard frogs back in the day and I’m hopeful I can eventually reestablish another one.

Things are beginning to recover from the hail storm.  We’ve had severe weather predicted much of the week but so far have avoided any.  Unfortunately we’ve also avoided any rain.  The rain in May was very helpful but if it just dries out again we’ll be right back to the drought conditions we’ve enjoyed going on three years now.  The place is green and looks really good until you look closely and see all the debris yet to be cleaned up but by no means has the drought been broken.

Finally the painters have completed their work and received their pay.  They were here a couple of extra days because of our front door.  They refinished it and applied a couple of protective coatings of polyurethane.  Joyce and I thought it looked pretty good but the owner of the company wasn’t satisfied.  He explained to me that the weathering that had started on the door would continue unless they took the door down to the bare wood, which they did, stained it and applied polyurethane.  He told Joyce the protective coating they applied was resistant to the sun.  Since the door faces south it gets lots of sun in winter and I was having a devil of a time trying to keep it looking nice.  I tried re-staining it myself but didn’t apply polyurethane.  Kathryn suggest washing it and applying Formby’s something or other, I think it was.  That improved it temporarily but didn’t last anytime so I’m glad  they went to the trouble to remove a maintenance headache.  They also fixed a number of places where the wood had rotted over time and that and the fresh paint makes our humble abode look pretty darn good to us.

Friday and Saturday evening about bed-time thunderstorms rumbled through and we got 3/8 inch rain Friday and 1/8 inch Saturday.  The neighbors hosted an end-of-year party Saturday evening and had nice weather for it.  The rain was just about right for our needs, especially since the weather has been relatively cool.  We avoided high winds and hail.  It was pleasant to lie in bed and listen to a gentle shower accompanied by a little T&L.