up to code

The sunflowers moved from bloom to seed. Birds visit the drooping flowers, and pick the seeds from the faded blooms. We remain at Stage 3 drought alert, which translates to limiting our outdoor watering to once a week. The prospect exists that we will escalate to phase 4, in which one can only water foundations and trees by hose. Watering foundations is our regional past-time, as our clay soil provides that blessed assurance that one will one day have foundation issues, and it is only a question of how soon.

I heard from family members one of those satisfying stories, the Saga of the Code Enforcing Neighbor. It goes like this: "Once upon a time, there lived in a particular tract home suburb a
Code Enforcing Neighbor. Whenever a neighbor erected a structure, allowed a trace of paint to peel, or mis-parked a car, the Code Enforcing Neighbor called the town's Building Code Enforcement personnel, who would appear and write a ticket for fifty dollars against the offending party. The Code Enforcing Neighbor became quite unpopular as a result of his zeal.

One day, two of his neighbors went to his home to try to reason with him. They wanted him to stop being a Code Enforcing Neighbor. They were not getting anywhere, though, as he declined to desist.
As they prepared to leave, the man's sprinkler came on. The problem was that this was a violation of the most serious code of all--the Drought Code. The two visitors called the Drought Code Enforcing Unit, who promptly issued a ticket for two thousand dollars to the Code Enforcing Neighbor.

They all lived happily ever after. No more fifty dollar tickets were written, while the Code Enforcing Neighbor discvoered a new hobby called "libertarianism", which kept him out of trouble (and office) for life".