By all accounts we intended to sleep in this morning. Sun is bright, birds are happily chirping, Monday morning traffic . . . it’s all there to keep us on track. Coffee sure tasted good this morning.

The Koi are in the pond doing laps and enjoying being out of the horse tank in the garage. We have seven Koi starting out this spring. We did loose one over the winter months. Dennis popped in some food sticks after a bit and surprisingly they were chowing down. So much for being dormant. The removal of the horse tank from the garage brought on a bit of cleaning in the car garage. We literally scratched the surface of what is needed to tidy up. Dang . . . that “tidy bit” gets Dennis in more trouble than not. On the bright side, I would never not help.

I had called the city office this morning and left a message for the head of the street department. I wanted to visit with Ray Hector as I heard he was retiring this June. We have a good history. Ray was over within the hour. My concern was Stauffer Alley. They continue hauling on surface products . . . this concerns me. About 15 years ago we had both garages jacked up and had an additional 15″ block put down on what was already in place. On the south side, I can now see 2 inches of the 15″ block showing. Ray smiled when he got out of the city pickup. Yup, he knew what my concern was before I could make small talk.

Stauffer Avenue is on the schedule for a re-do. I don’t know all the details, but I was assured it would be better than what we have now. He also verbally noted that he saw I had had to dig out dirt to get my potting shed door open. It does serve one well if those sensitive topics are taken one slow step at a time.

The day went well and we pulled out more patio chairs. The patio on the east side of the patio porch and the patio that is on the west of the patio porch . . . hey, we need chairs where we can enjoy what the day brings, but not in the bright full sun.