The Cat Just Ate a Gecko, We Have Hot Water!, I Ran Over the Neighbor's Water lLne with the Lawn Mower!

The cat is adjusting well. We have let him walk around outside for a few minutes. He likes it but is very jumpy. Stomp your foot on the ground and watch him jump straight up! It's hysterical. We finally got a hot water system hooked up. Its a gas (LPG) instant on hot water heater. We weighed going "green" vs the gas hot water system. First the economics really don't add up to go solar. A good solar hot water system would cost $2100. There is a $500 tax break so it would really cost us $1600. The gas system cost $200 and $30 worth of connections. $1400 can by a lot of LPG!

My second thought was that the solar system was not completely without environmental impact. The thing is big. It took a lot of metal to create and it may only last 10 years before major repairs. Another thing is it uses a 220V electric heating element when the weather has been cloudy for a couple of days or if it gets too cold at night. The gas system doesn't give us super hot water but it should be fine. We might break even in 10 years with the solar system but we really don't plan on using that much hot water in the first place. We could change our minds later but lets see how this works first.

Well, I was mowing again and I did not see ourneighbors water line and I ran over a coupling with the mower. Water sprayed up and I followed the line until I found a shutoff valve. The water lines here are some times above ground and sometimes just below the surface and are usually a combination of both. I called for Katrina because the neighbor doesn't speak English. She is a very nice lady and Katrina spends a lot of time with her going over plants in the yard. I said Yo soy los siento and Katrina conveyed the rest of the message and then all we had to do was point to the broken water line. We then needed to convey that I would fix it within an hour or so. So off I went to HQI pluming. Then the neighbor starting picking giant grapefruit in her yard and handing them to Katrina. They then started to make a bunch of grapefruit juice. Then when they were done with that she then started to make us lunch at her house. I arrived just in time and put a new coupling on then had lunch. Hows that, I break her water line and she makes us grapefruit juice and lunch! I then got the chainsaw out and asked her what she wanted to cut up in her yard. She has been hacking away at some 10 inch trees with a machete! I made short work of all the old trees in her yard even though she was reluctant to ask for help. Then she told Katrina that it's OK to cut the breadfruit tree back so the fruit will be lower. I cut some big branches off the tree and the neighbor started to help me drag them away. It's not some thing you see a woman in her 60's do.