We live in some weird Bermuda triangle-like area here: if the forecast says 30% chance of rain, ours is more toward zero. If it says 50%, likewise. Over that, and it starts looking better, but just barely.

Natural rainfall has a lot of benefits over watering from the well – plus, it saves on running the pump until we can get a solar bypass rigged on it, particularly to use during the summer months. Today, we had a brief downpour while I was at the NOC dealing with a recalcitrant server. Just now, we had a five minute or so massive rainfall, and just like that, it’s gone. This is the herald of a few evenings of freezing weather, so tomorrow will be hoop day in the garden to protect the little watermelon volunteers that made it through, and I’m going to try some peanuts under cover. They say they need four months of frost free weather, but with some plastic, I should be able to make them think it’s still rather balmy out.

Weekend pickoff results: I picked the Ravens (won), Eagles (won), Panthers (lost), and Steelers (won). Not bad, but a little weird that only one of the home teams managed to pull out a win in the playoffs.