Friday: Hydration, Injection, a Near Scam, and Roses

Friday morning I went in for hydration and another immune booster injection.  Stopped on the way home to pick up some Japanese fast food - teriyaki bowls that are a favorite of ours.  Of course, I could eat only about a quarter of my bowl, but that's OK; daughter will have the rest of it for her dinner or tomorrow's lunch.

I was resting in the afternoon, when the knock came on my front door.  A gentleman in a uniform, flashing his company badge, telling me that he's from Company X, my house qualifies for a water conservation meter, and he's here to take the specifics and install the meter!  Excuse me?  Who are you?  What are you trying to do?  He assured me he was there to save me money on my water bill!  The municipal water I receive is metered and I am billed every 2 months, along with electricity and sewage treatment fees and solid waste collection fees.  The gentleman claimed that by installing their water meter, I would see a savings on my City water bill.  How?  It's a water conservation meter, it conserves water.  And there is no charge for installation.  Because my neighbor down the street has one and they are in the neighborhood to install his meter, so they can install my meter free of charge.  But there is a fee to pay later on?  Oh, yes, a monthly fee of $19.99 which can be paid from the savings I'd be making on my regular water bill when I install the water conservation meter.  What happens if I don't install the meter?  Your water bill will go up next month because they are raising the rates.  And if I don't install the meter by this weekend, the state will start charging for the installation, starting Monday.  Oh, my!  The pressure to decide on this matter right then and there!  Can I have some literature to read about it?  He left me a piece of paper, preprinted with a website, on which he wrote his name and phone number; not quite the literature I was wanting to read about the program.  Daughter called the municipal department of water and power and they agreed that it sounded like a scam.  Anybody tinkering with the water meter needed to have a permit to do so, etc.  I called my neighbor to warn her and she said the person was already at her door, talking to her husband.  They too, asked for literature to read about the program and declined the gentleman's pressure to have the meter installed right away.  He did admire my copper pipes, so now, I am wondering if he'll be back to steal my copper pipes away!  

Later in the afternoon, my gardener friend stopped by and planted the 5 new rose bushes he had bought earlier.  They all went in the front garden rose bed, filling in the holes where earlier plants had died.  I am supposed to water these roses until they take and water them more once they have taken.  They are burgundy iceberg roses, so hopefully, they'll do well in that location where they'll get full sun most of the day.

Newly Planted Roses

Another View of the Rose Bed

And just because I couldn't resist the pop of color:

The Lantana Border

Close Up of the Lantana

Today, I am grateful for:

- The hydration and the injection
- A little bit of an appetite
- Avoiding getting caught to a scam!
- Newly planted roses
- The front garden landscaping is almost completed