A Drought, A Tree Update and A Mitzvah - Such Goings On!

I'm awake, my morning meditation completed, and the first load of laundry in the washing machine. The thunderstorms which were very busy overnight, have moved away from my direct area, so we should be fine for the outdoor pool today. Yippee! It was quite the light show at 1:00 am or so, though. A very definite heavy storm running through. Hopefully we got some good rain from it. It's been a very dry year and the grass is looking horrid. 

Our lawn has been looking more yellow than green lately, 
with our drought. It looks terrible. A little rain and it will 
come back a bit, but we're behind on our usual rainfall 
amounts too. For a land with 10,000 lakes to be in a 
drought is rare, but we've had one for the past few summers. 

My next door neighbor, Chris, texted me last night to update me on the tree removal. Remember that huge branch from his silver maple that came down into our yard a bit more than a week ago? Originally he had arranged for a tree company to remove it on Monday last week, but that didn't happen. I don't exactly know why, but it's not hurting anything, it just needs to be removed. So Chris said he had three different tree companies out to look and bid on the job, and has chosen one. They are waiting on a sign-off by the local utility company (utility lines run on the south border of our joint properties), and then they can begin work. 

My poor next door neighbor. Not only does 
he have to come up with money to remove the 
tree branch, but he also has lent his in-laws 
one of his cars since theirs was stolen. He has 
three kids in private school, and I know he 
doesn't make a lot of money. It's going to be 
a hard year for him. 

I texted back that I was relieved to hear it, and thanked him for keeping me in the loop. Then told him I thought they might be on vacation or something since one car was missing from their driveway. No, it turned out the car belonging to their in-laws was stolen! They have been loaning their second car to the in-laws until they can either find their own car, or get a different one. It never rains but it pours,  poor guy! But, DH did a kindness (because the weeds were annoying him) and mowed the strip of ground between the sidewalk and the street yesterday in front of Chris' house. Good reason or poor one, it was a mitzvah. 

What is a Mitzvah? Unless you're Jewish or speak 
Yiddish, you might be unfamiliar with the term. 
Basically, it's doing a kindness. Chris did a mitzvah 
for his in-laws by lending them one of his cars, and 
Jim did a mitzvah for Chris by mowing his strip of 
land. The world would be a better place if more of 
us did a mitzvah every day. 

So, I'm off to the pool. Since the thunderstorms are south of us and things look clear to the west, we'll be able to swim outdoors, which will make me very happy indeed. We might even have a really fun sunrise if there are any interesting clouds in the sky. I've got a super busy day today, starting with a 7:40 am mammogram, so I'm out of here and off and running. Hope you have an excellent Wednesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.