I had a wonderful visit with my family in Los Angeles, and was now heading home to Florida. The flight to Fort Lauderdale was mostly uneventful except for the woman in the seat next to me telling me: ‘Don’t get too comfortable, you are in my husband’s seat.’

I show her my ticket verifying that I am indeed in the aisle seat D. Her reply in a snarky tone: ‘He is not going to be happy with the window seat. Like I said,don’t get too comfortable.’

Her husband shows up and says: ‘What’s going on? Are you telling me I don’t have the aisle seat? I’m going to have to climb over you’ I get up so that he can climb over his wife and get to his window seat crumbling all the way.

Oh joy, this is going to be a LONG flight. As the attendants close the cabin door, I notice that there is only one person sitting in the row in front of me. I ask the attendant if I can change seats and sit by the window in that row. ‘Let me make sure that it okay with him first’ she says.

She confers with the gentleman in the aisle to see if it is okay with him for me to change to the window seat in his row. He okays it and off I go. What a relief. The woman is happy, her husband is happy and I am happy. Nice, now for a little nap.

I wake up after my short nap to find the gentleman in my row wearing a face mask. Yes, I full blown face mask. Eyes, nose and mouth are all protected from inhaling or absorbing any ‘foul or germ filled’ air. Mind you it was a bit starting to wake up to see this masked man. Interesting fellow my row mate.

We experienced some rather nasty turbulence towards the end of the flight but otherwise, it was a nice ride. I was happy that we would be landing soon. I just need to call the parking lot company and its homeward bound for me.

As I was getting into my car after retrieving it from airport parking, my neighbor called to tell me there was a problem with my sprinklers. They would not go off.

Trish was kind enough to try to shut off the sprinklers. Unfortunately, the control box uses a key. That was news to me! I don’t have a key for the box. I told her it was okay to break it. She was able to turn off all of the zones. Whew, that’s a relief.

Shoot, that was short lived. One sprinkler was still ‘spurting’ water. Now we talk about options and decide to unplug the whole thing. That should do it, right? Of course not. It is never that easy. There is one sprinkler that is still running a little bit but should slow down.

Trish checked to make sure that I have water in the house. Water does come out of the faucets but only at a dribble and then a gush for a short time. Something is definitely wrong. I tell her I’ll see her in a couple of hours.

On my drive I encounter something called “Smoke Fog.” Oh joy. There is a fire somewhere and the smoke is drifting over the road and obscuring the view. This ought to be fun as the drivers around me like to go about 150 miles an hour. Ok, I jest, they only like to go about 95 to 100. I’m not comfortable with that. I drive in the slow lane until I am past the dreaded Smoke Fog. That was fun.

Once clear of the Smoke Fog, I am sure that I’m going to have clear sailing. Not quite. It appears that storm clouds are in my future. It is dry as a bone but it doesn’t look promising up ahead. Uh Oh, lightening. Can’t hear the thunder but I can definitely see the lightening.

As I near the first exit that will take me towards home, DELUGE! OMG. Not just a few sprinkles but pounding rain. I miss the exit. Drat. Cars and trucks have slowed down a little (only going about 85 now). I’m in the slow lane with my hazard lights on hoping that the cars can see me. I mange to get off at the next exit.

The rain continues and the streets are flooded. I can handle this. At least there are more lights and the traffic is going slower than the speed limit. The further west that I go, the more the rain is easing. Thank goodness. As I near the bridge, the rain stops completely. Smooth sailing again.

I stop by my neighbor’s house and pick up my dog, Diva and head home. Ahhh, HOME at last. I get my bags inside and proceed to pet and cuddle little Diva. She is happy that I am home. Time for bed. I’ll think about the sprinklers in the morning.

My alarm goes off and it’s time to start my day. Uh Oh. It isn’t just the sprinklers that are having a problem. As I’m brushing my teeth, the water starts out fine but then slows to a trickle. AND I mean a trickle. Maybe it’s just the bathroom faucet, right? I finish with the morning ‘toiletries’ as much as possible and head out to the kitchen for my COFFEE.

Water is flowing from the filtered water faucet. I can make coffee. Yum. I get fresh water for Diva, put her food down and enjoy my cup of coffee while going through my emails. Now off to the shower.

Not so fast. The water is barely coming out of the shower head. This is going to be fun. Have you ever tried to take a shower with a bottle of water? Well, that is what it felt like. A COLD shower at that. Dribble, soap up. Dribble, Dribble Dribble. NOT FUN!!! Finally able to ‘rinse’. Definitely not an enjoyable

After a few calls, I am able to line up someone to come by and check out the water system. Can’t come for a few days so this will be fun to work through.

Now for the bad news . . .  Both of my tanks for filtering the water etc  are shot. Some of the stuff from the first tank broke loose (or some such thing) and got into the second tank clogging and damaging it beyond repair. Thus, the trickle of water. So, basically I need all new stuff all of which has to be ordered. Monday is a Holiday so that will delay it further. The nice repairman was able to install a bypass pipe for the time being. At least I can shower and have running water. Not sure when the parts will come in but am happy to have water.

Home Sweet Home, gotta love it.