Tom had an eventful first day on the road, when a deer appeared out of nowhere and hit him!  Luckily he hadn't been going that fast, and didn't lose control of the truck/trailer.  The good news is that the truck is still drivable; the main damage was to the bumper, which was totally trashed and dragging and had to be removed.  We're both hoping he has a less exciting drive today!

We got quite a lot of water during irrigation yesterday (may be able to cut back from 2 hours?) and everything stayed pond-like all day.  Since I'd closed off the dog door (not wanting Brownie to track mud onto the carpet) I took him was a short walk late yesterday afternoon up to Marcie's.  But she wasn't home yet; her flight wasn't due in until 6:30.  We visited with Mike and Latina for a bit in the backyard, and then limped home.  I'm extremely pleased to report that Brownie, while not thrilled to see the leash, did not pull his flop-down routine at any point... so I'm hoping we've finally breeched that hurdle! 

After dinner I did some laundry while I caught up on some taped shows - and made it to 9:45 before I got into bed and read for a short while.  So it would seem that I'm back on a better Arizona schedule.  Of course with the dog door still closed off I needed to take Brownie out back for a last pee before bed.  The water by then had receded a bit, so some grass off the deck was available.  As soon as we neared the pool I could tell "something" was swimming along the edge of the pool, so I grabbed the net and rescued it. 

The second I set down the net it raced off to the chain link fence and was up and over - with Brownie in hot pursuit.  Of course he got quite muddy - and stayed by the fence for some time, hoping (in vain) for another chance at it.  In the dark (even though I'd brought out my flashlight) I could only guess at what it was - either a large rat (yuck) or a baby of some other species.  Naturally once Brownie gave up and came back on the deck he needed to be rinsed off on the top step of the pool... though he didn't seem to mind that.