Just one of those days

Yesterday was one of those days that make you wish you had stayed in bed. It's been quite warm and the humidity has been terrible, opening the front door and stepping outside feels like what I imagine the Amazon rainforest is like.  Here's the NOAA forecast for the next week. 

• This Afternoon A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 84. South southwest wind around 5 mph.
• Tonight A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 8pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 63. South southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
• Thursday A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 85. Calm wind becoming south southwest around 5 mph in the afternoon.
• Thursday Night A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 2am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 64. South southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
• Friday A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 8am. Partly sunny, with a high near 86. Calm wind becoming north around 5 mph in the afternoon.
• Friday Night A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 8pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 65. Southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
• Saturday A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 8am. Partly sunny, with a high near 87. Calm wind becoming northeast around 5 mph in the afternoon.
• Saturday Night A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 66. East northeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
• Sunday A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 87. Calm wind becoming south southeast around 5 mph in the afternoon.
• Sunday Night A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 66.
• Monday A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 86.
• Monday Night A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 66.
• Tuesday A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 87.

Notice the predicted wind speeds. The worst part of the forecast is the fact that there is no wind. I often tell friends from the plains that the wind doesn't blow in Tennessee, and I'm not joking.  I dislike hot humid weather, and this place is full of it. I snapped this picture in the late afternoon a couple days ago which plainly shows the moisture in the air.

Plants, on the other hand, adore the jungle-like atmosphere here and grow like, well, weeds. My yard man has gone AWOL, I hauled my big riding mower up north a couple weeks ago and the plants are taking full advantage of these facts. Since I had only mowed two times this summer before taking the mower up north and the yard guy hasn't shown up, the yard is getting very overgrown, so I broke down yesterday and started mowing with the little walk-behind mower I have. It was miserable. I managed to get the small front part finished, but the whole big side yard and across the driveway is still lurking, plus a mountain of weed-eating around everything. Despite sweating like a stuck pig it was horribly hot because there is no breeze, and because at these humidity levels there is no evaporative cooling. I would work for a short period shoving the poor little mower through the knee deep grass, then come inside to sit in the air conditioning and have a glass of cold water to cool down.

To really make this fun, the well decided to stop working. This is an ongoing problem here, with no discernable cause. Every once in a while, perhaps every few months, you turn on a tap and nothing comes out. Wait a while, and it's working fine again. I've replaced the pressure tank and pressure switch, and installed a spin-down filter on it to trap the black sand that was plugging things up when I bought the house. No change in the water problem. It's a fairly deep well, almost 150 feet, and according to the neighbor the intake is sitting in an underground stream. He loses water at times as well but not as often as I do, and the problem seems to be worse in the summer. I'm guessing either the stream's level drops below the well intake or else the pump is failing, I've voting for the water level being the problem since I know the previous owner had the same issue going back over 10 years. "City" water is available but there's a  hefty hook-up fee and I don't like the idea of paying monthly for chemically treated and fluoridated water.

Right around dusk the water decided to work again. Yay! After cleaning up I decided to throw a nice pork chop on the grill. Came back inside and started some broccoli, then went out to flip the chop only to discover the grill had run out of gas. The half-cooked chop had to be finished in the house while the broccoli overcooked. At least the margarita was cold and refreshing.