Today is the 61st day without rain here in Texas. That’s several days beyond the previous 58 day record set back in 1934. Water supplies are low enough in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area that water rationing has begun. Normally, during droughts, we get every-other-day restrictions on residential watering but this year it looks like every-five-days will be the rule. The whole idea of growing grass on the land all around a house has always seemed fairly stupid to me anyway, so I really don’t mind seeing it die off. Lawn mowers put out an amazing amount of pollution – probably more than a car. And with no wind or rain these days, all that smog seems to hang over the city for way too long. The grass in our in our front yard is so dead and dry right now that it makes a lot of noise to walk on it. Dumping some Captain Crunch breakfast cereal in your driveway and walking around on it will give you a good idea of what it sounds like.

Oddly, there are always lots of people around during these droughts who prefer to have green lawns more than drinking water and they frequently ignore the rationing rules and water their lawns on a daily basis. We’ve restricted our watering to the plant life we’d really like to keep such as our trees. And lately, we’ve discovered that the reptiles that live around the house are so thirsty that they’ll happily drink water provided by our watering can. Our lizards occasional get brave enough to eat out of our hand but it’s rare to see them drink at all. A few days ago, a green anole decided he liked the water pouring out of our watering can so much that after drinking some, he jumped under the stream of water and let it cover his entire body as if he were taking a bath in it.