Need rain

When I mow the grass, it crunches under my feet. The mower raises a cloud of dust from my yard. The only green spots are right under the roof. What rain there is doesn't make it far past where it falls. The ground cracks. The fence starts to fall over. The dirt pulls away from the house.

When I water, I'm aiming at the dirt around the foundation of the house and those fence posts. The plants are not quite on their own, but I don't spare much for them.

The ground around my home is raised slightly. They did this on purpose when they built the place. The ground beneath the top soil is clay. It is hard as concrete when it is dry. It is sticky and stiff as bubble gum when it is wet. It shifts around like slow flowing water. That is why we have concrete slabs in Houston. It also means when we have a dry spell, the top foot of dirt on my property turns in to a sandbox. A sandbox, that will not support plants and pulls away from the foundation of the house and fence posts.

The ants don't seem to have a problem with the heat and dry weather. They just come in the house, put their feet up and help themselves to the fridge, ice maker and all. I need to figure out how to put a screen over those weep holes in my wall.

We need rain.

Sunday, two storm clouds passed my home. One passed to the north and the other passed to the south. I don't think we got a drop that day. I heard a tap tap and hoped it was rain drops. It had been so long. It turned out to be gunfire from the range about a mile north of us.

We need rain.