It’s raining today, again. At least it’s a good rain. Lighty drizzling, soaking in the ground slowly, wetting the blades of grass without weighing them flat to the ground. Everything outside my window looks so green and fresh. We’ve had a good bit of rain during the past week. The cycle its been in is good for the new grass I’ve been trying to coax from the tiny seeds spead around the back yard. A raining day, then a sunny day. A near perfect combination of the two. Janis Joplin, along with Big Brother and the Holding Company, made a song back in the sixties called A Combination of the Two, but they were talking about something other than sun and rain. Sorry, I’ve digressed. The alternating sun and rain has been good for my garden too.

Outside my office window, in the grass, is a fire hydrant. In all the time I’ve been with this company I’ve never seen this thing opened. Today was a first. I watched a car pulling up near the locked gate early this morning. This is always an event that makes me laugh because the gate is never opened, and the driveway is a little off the normal route of the front drive and parking area. Invariably though, at least once a week, someone makes their way to the gate. After a moment of puzzlement they begain the three point turn, trying not to get on the grass, to go back to the front of the building and try another way. So, imagine my disappointment when today’s car came near the gate and made a left turn onto the grass, and pulled up close to the building before stopping. My first thought was, “Man, what a jerk?” The guy gets out of his car, and wanders off to the front of the building. “Parking lot must be full today” I thought. After a little while I noticed the man at the fire hydrant opening the valve. A high pressure stream of water came rushing out of the hydrant, and by the time the valve was completely open the spray went the length of the area from the hydrant to the trees near the pond. Probably a least one hundred feet. “Now that’s the way to water the grass” I thought.

That’s been pretty much the highlight of my day. Watching a hydrant exhaust its captive supply of water across the lawn where it could rundown the hillside, through the grass and make its way back into the pond. A full circle.