Unheard of.

 After quite a long stretch of days with no rain, it was starting to get worrisome. Mattie said that she got scarcely any strawberries this year because there just was not enough rain. We had 2.01 inches of rain in May, which is less than half of what we normally get. We have had no rainfall at all for the month of June. Until Sunday. We've been promised rain for the past couple days. It didn't happen. I read that the reason we are not seeing the rain is, after three weeks of no rain and some blazing heat, it has been so dry that the rain is evaporating before it hits the ground. I need to do more reading on that. It sounds reasonable, but I've never heard of such a thing before. 

But it is raining now and they are calling for rain for most of the week. Of course they are: we are expecting the lumber for our house to be delivered Monday morning. Funny story about that. Tim went up and placed the order, over $4,000 in material. He pulled out his wallet and handed them his debit card. They said, "Oh, we don't take cards. Cash or checks only."

*shocked silence* 

Being unfamiliar with the area, Tim asked if there was a branch of our bank anywhere near by. 

The fellow said, "Oh, don't worry about it. You can just give the check to the guys when they deliver it on Monday." (It's about an hour away.)

Now how long has it been since you heard of a place that does business like that? 

There wasn't anything to be done at the new house, so we stayed in town Sunday afternoon and put a second coat of paint on the renovation. We got the house done before the drizzle started. 

One of the things that we are working on this summer is gently pushing William to be a bit more independent. He's pretty timid.  Yesterday, while we were painting, he did a $5 job, got bored and began to wonder when we would go home. He pushed a bit and I said, "Listen, if you want to go home, it's a nice day for a walk, but we're not leaving until we're finished here. I can't tell you precisely when that will happen." I honestly did not think that he would even consider it. 

Much to our surprise, he pondered this. It is exactly 1 mile, about 19 blocks. He said, "Well. I know the way." 

I agreed that he did and kept on painting. 

"I could call you on my cell phone if I got nervous."

"You could," I said, painting on. "I don't really think that you have anything to be nervous about though." 

It took him five minutes, but he made up his mind. "I'm walking home," he said and off he went. 

Spoiler: he was fine, he got home with no problems and even remembered to water the geraniums. 

Today, we went to the new house to install the sill plate. William was a great help. Tim was on scaffolding. I was on a ladder. It was very nice to have an extra set of legs to run things back and forth between us. There was no complaining either, which was appreciated more than you can guess. This evening, his grandpa gave him his pay for the last two days and his allowance for the week. He was pretty happy with life. 

He remembered a book that he wanted. He had plenty of money to make that purchase. I offered to take him to the store. "Here's the thing though. I'm tired, I'm in sweats, my hair's a wreck from working in the rain all day. If we're going, you'll have to run into the store yourself, get the book, and then pay for it. I'll wait in the car." 

He was quite nervous about that, not at all certain that kids his age were allowed to be at checkouts without a responsible adult. "What if they ask me for my ID?" 

"They won't," I said. "It's a cash transaction." To make him laugh, I suspiciously asked him just what kind of book he was buying anyway. 

"Not that kind," he said. 

He wanted his book pretty badly. I could tell he was wavering. I let him decide.

"I could call you on my cell phone, if there was a problem?" 

I assured him that he could. 

So off we went. On the way there, he made up his mind to use self checkout because he would not have to talk to an adult. 

The parking lot was pretty empty when we got there, which made him happy. I was able to park right at the entrance. He headed off to the store on his own. He must have run, because he was headed back to the car in very short order, waving his book over his head. 

It's kind of cool to be able to watch him making these little steps towards independence. I'm a lucky grandma.