Rain, Plants, Demolition and Health

Here in North Raleigh, we've gotten at least nine inches of rain in the last week and a half. That's in the neighborhood of what my former home of San Diego gets in a whole year. There was some flooding (a nearby mall's parking deck still has expanses of mud in it), and I think a record was set. It's summertime, too, so it's a humid, hellish sauna. The plants in our yard love it. Life is exploding everywhere (including insect life), and my herbs have been flourishing. Even my sluggish parsley is starting to pick up the pace. My wife is in charge of the plants that look nice, and she has turned the back yard into a lush garden (it used to be a vast, copperhead-harboring expanse of English ivy). Her parents helped us quite a bit this last weekend. They pulled weeds, bought me an extension ladder (I don't know how I've been a homeowner this long without one) and her father helped me with a bathroom demolition project.

It should be clarified that this is the first real work my father-in-law has done in six months. He had been feeling like shit for a year or so. Fast-forward two family doctors, an endocrinologist, a parathyroidectomy and a laparoscopic kidney procedure, and I can't keep up with him. He pulled weeds, cut down a tree, cleaned gutters and ripped out a third of the heretofore indestructible bathroom tile standing in the way of a remodel. The dust and noise created by a diamond circular saw blade is incredible. You could say I'm spoiled rotten, but I tried to do some of the work myself. I really did. But he just kept going. He's a home improvement machine, you see. Kind of like a great white shark is an eating machine. It's just what he does. Millions of years of evolution have given rise to his unique species, and men who pay to have things fixed are forgotten. I hope he gets some use out of the industrial strength grill brush I made for him for Father's Day. It's actually a brass pizza oven brush from the restaurant supply store with a handle attached. We got him Travel Scrabble, too. He's tough to shop for; he's one of those rare people who aren't particularly materialistic and has everything he needs. At least he likes the way I cook skirt steak.

Here are some pearls of wisdom from this past weekend:
1)North Carolina is not a desert.
2)Properly installed bathroom tile does not want to move.
3)Pay close attention to the elevation above sea level of the house you buy. We got lucky, and ours did not float away.
4)Pay the extra money for quality in-laws when you're at the dealership. It's worth it.