Scout's adventure, weed wackery and another timed mile run

"Hello?" is the word that woke me today. I still do not know who entered the house this morning and said it. I am grateful though because who ever it was woke me at the time needed to begin another day.

Painters are still painting. I water a couple plants in the front. I see a yellow fire truck in the driveway. They are here to make sure we have cleared the brush within 100 feet of living structures. The head fireman in charge walks up to me and says, "Are you the owner?"

"No, he's on vacation... what's up?"

"We're checking for fire clearing."

"Are we in compliance?'

"No, its pretty bad and I've sent 2 notices in the mail which have not been heeded."

"Sorry about that. We will comply as soon as possible. I'll make a call to our land manager right away."

"I'll be back in a week to check." He's wearing his dark blue uniform with a silver badge on his chest. His hair and mustache are speckled with grey. He tells me what areas need to be weed wacked. "You only have to make some progress and show that you are getting it done. If its not started then I'll have to send in our team. It won't be pretty. It starts with an administration fee of $650."

I respond with: "Thanks, we'll take care of it right away."

When I speak with Bill (still in Utah), he says that he never received any notices. He sounds very relaxed and only gets mildly annoyed with this weed wackery.

My conversation with Scout (see previous post) was partly successful. He went for a walk by himself but instead of exploring the estate, he walked down the road. Some one picked him up and took him to their home. They fed him and put him in the backyard with their dog and then called Devin who then called me. After eating dinner, they drive him back up the hill. I thanked them and gifted a bottle of Cabranet.

I bought a digital watch today with a stopwatch mode, cruised over to Nordoff Highschool and timed myself in the mile. The first split was 75 sec. My next lap was a stuggle as my upper lungs felt tight. Third lap I checked my time and tried to pick it up but only just maintained. Last lap I picked it up but still not like I wanted to. The results: 5 min 47 sec - shaved 12 sec off previous cell phone timed mile. It turns out that Devin ran 5 min 42 sec a month or two ago. He said that he really pushed it. This kind of gives me some hope that I can win the Casa Barranca mile and collect the prize of 5 c-notes. We are both pretty competitive so I believe that it will take a sub 5 30 to pull it off.