7:00 A.M. coffee and a surprise gift

I am not known for being a morning person, but for some reason--maybe because of the "high school friend being mean" nightmare I was having--I woke up at 4:24 a.m. this morning. Let me go back to sleep! My body's alarm clock knew I had to be up and out by 8:00 a.m., but this was way too early.   I donned my glasses and saw that it was not 4:24 a.m. like the alarm said, but almost half past six. Shadow the cat was thrilled to catch an early breakfast--a rarity--and the idea of coffee on the cool back terrace sounded like a nice way to start the day. The sun was barely peaking atop the horizon and I could hear the sprinklers watering the backyard before the hot afternoon sun came out to dry it all out. Problem--it isn't our watering day.

Sunrise over the hills.

Outside, the birds chirp happily as they discover the full feeder. Whew--it's the sprinklers on the golf course behind us spewing out water on the parched greens and fairway--all for the men's tournament--called Waterloo--I'm laughing out loud now--only male golfers would get such a luxury. What a relief--it isn't my sprinkler system running. I don't want to be hit with the huge fine for disregarding local water restrictions. This drought is getting pretty scary throughout Texas.

Huge 30' wide plumes of lake water are arching over my back hedge now soaking half of the backyard! Exclamation point needed because our water bills in Austin are scary high in the summer. We can only water once a week with minimum set times. It's 7:00 a.m. now and my 6' tall English rose bushes are happily soaking up the generous splashes of cool water; and the St. Augustine grass under the giant oak tree glistens. Best morning cup of coffee with a view that I've had on the terrace in quite a while.

Forgot to tell you we have a leak in our pool--Mr. Leak Detection has been scuba diving throughout our pool for over a week looking for the source. Why didn't I take a photo of that? I had just assumed that the perfectly green back lawn--front lawn is crispy--was because over an inch of water was leaking from the pool every 24 hours. Wrong--apparently chlorinated pool water and free daily golf course watering is the source of the lush green.

Guess that was why I woke up at 6:27 a.m. this morning--to enjoy the gift of free water! Something to be thankful for in the heat of a Texas summer. Now, if they would only open the back gate and mow the lawn.

Wait--what's happening here? All the workers and the course manager have gathered behind my hedge talking loudly about something! Oh no. Does that laughing mean they've discovered their mistake? Carts are flying back and forth, giant mowers and rakes have appeared. I'm crossing my fingers that they are just admiring their work and not cutting me off.

Sun up fully now and it's getting really hot out here. Need to go inside to make breakfast scones before they see me lurking in my PJs--mystery free water investigation to be continued.