We received our first significant rainfall for the month of June yesterday evening. Of course, it started when my wife and I were halfway through our constitutional, at the point of no return. It started with a few sporadic drops, which I misattributed to a lawn sprinkler we’d just passed. By the time we rounded the last corner, it was coming down in sheets and we were soaked. We didn’t care–it felt good. I had almost started to believe that the sky had forgotten how to rain around here. Of course, when we got back into our air conditioned house, getting soaked to the skin no longer seemed like such a great idea. Brrrr.
Today we received notice that our voluntary water conservation measures have become mandatory. That means watering the lawn only twice a week and no more than an inch per week, with fines of up to $200/day for violations. Lawn irrigation is the single biggest drain on the pumping station, they say.
Good episode of The Closer last night, as Fritzie and Brenda both relied on their knowledge of the other’s behavior to further their individual causes. The whole “LAPD doesn’t care about X crime” has been done before, so I recognized it for the trick it was, but that didn’t make the moment when the dufus who fell for it realized his mistake any less rewarding. I had no idea what Brenda wanted the money for, though, which made for a nice payoff at the end, pun intended.
Because the book still isn’t available for pre-order, I haven’t been saying much about my new publication, The Stephen King Illustrated Companion, due out from Barnes and Noble in November, but I finally decided it was time to blow the wraps off this puppy. Those of you who played along with my jigsaw puzzles last week got a sneak preview, but for the rest of you, you can read the publisher’s copy and back-of-the-book text here. I’ll be happy to answer any questions you might have about the book, and I’ll be adding more details in the coming days and weeks. This is going to be a large book, what you might call a coffee table volume, and it will have all manner of neat little documents and surprises inside pockets that you’ll be able to take out and explore. I can’t wait to see the finished product myself.
I spent the morning revising a 1000-word essay that I’ve been toying with for months. I think I finally (finally) have it in the form that I’ve been trying to figure out all this time, so now it’s down to simply perfecting the wording. Soon I’m going to send it in, because if I don’t I’m going to start hating it.
