My Lucky Day!!!

Even as drug out as I am this morning .... tired, groggy, brain not in gear yet because of a late night ... I know yesterday was my lucky day!!  AND ... I'm sipping my cup-o-joe to the pleasant sound of the sprinklers finally turning on automatically.  I've had to do it manually for the last week since it just didn't want to cooperate.  

So far it seems the ten minutes per station every day except gardener day, seems to be working.  The front yard is mostly green, putting on a nice show for the neighbors.  The back yard ... well lets just say it's a pretty shade of light brown. 

And then I laughed out loud!!!  A friend sent this picture to me.  It could not be more perfect!!!  The ball is even the right color!!

Cooper and I have been walking most every morning now, with him obviously far ahead of me.  In fact, even at 13 years of age (91 in people years), I have to walk a very fast pace to keep up!!

We were serenaded the entire way this time by these three crows.  They were probably saying something like "look at those dummies walking along the road.  I wonder if they have any food?"  

I threw this together rather quickly in the afternoon, although the blocks are not sewn together yet.  It's always good to take a picture and let it marinate for awhile.  Looking at a picture actually shows the pattern and any big glaring mistakes.  It's weird how I have to squint to actually see the crosses ... otherwise all I see is white X's.

So in other words, I sat around all day until time to get dressed up in the required blue coat grey pants uncomfortable regalia for the "visitation" at the Elks.  It's actually an audit of sorts by the Big Kahunas to make sure we are giving everyone their fair share of the proceeds.  

There's a lot of pomp and circumstance and hand shaking, which you know I'm not a big fan of.  I'm the shy cowgirl that sits uncomfortably in the corner.  Once the first meeting was over, it was time to hit the chuckwagon.  

BUT WAIT ... this is where my lucky day came in!  I've asked just about everyone I know whether they have solar or not.  I know my friend does, but they leased ... and it was not a good deal.  I couldn't believe it when she and her new husband walked in with two of their friends.  I knew one was a contractor.  

My shyness went away as I made a beeline for their table, sat down and brought up my solar prices.  I knew the contractor would know this stuff, I just didn't want to intrude ... but I DID.  Sure enough, I find out that the average panel cost should be around $1,000.  That means for 16 panels, I should be paying $16,000 .... not the $28,800 I was quoted by SunRun (although the difference may be the new panels with micro-inverters on each one).

EVEN BETTER .... he gave me the name of HIS contractor that put up something like 65 panels on his house.  I'm calling him today to see if I can get a better price.  I'm so excited ... I just might be able to turn on the AC after all!!!  Worried about losing money if I move, he said I can add even more than the cost to the sale of my house because PG&E is increasing their cost 20% by next year.  YIKES!!  Maybe my timing is good!!!

SO ... one more really lucky part of my day was dinner!!!  As you know, I'm not a steak person.  I ate way too much dead cow when I was on the ranch.  This ... THIS ... was the best rib eye steak I've ever had.  The asparagus was roasted, seasoned and smothered in butter with red onions.  YUM YUM!!  The scalloped potatoes aren't as good as mine, but they were delicious too!  And I even brought half of it home for breakfast!!

With dinner over, I skipped the raffle stuff because I'm just not that lucky.  Plus, it was hot downstairs ... so up to the bar I went where the air was cool and breezy to await the historically long meeting.

In spite of all the introductions that took forever, the meeting was only 90 minutes long.  I yawned the entire time!  The highlight was when we voted to give the 4-H and FFA kids $250 each to help cover the cost of their fair animals.  We don't buy the critters, we just donate the cash.  Add to that the feeding of over 700 kids at the Merced County Fair.  That's just two of the places that Bingo money ends up.

I'm yawning again as I listen to the sweet sound of the sprinklers.  Maybe it will lull me back to sleep on the couch.  I've other interesting news, but I have to put on my well driller - plumber - hat for that one, so it will wait until tomorrow.