Only In Austin

The double rainbow tonight from Jessie's room.

It was another exciting day here at Stone's Throw which began with running out of water. Again. This time for real (if temporary). Our water system is complicated. We have a well, and it has a pump way down in the ground that pumps into a 1,250 gallon tank. Then there is another pump that pumps the water from that tank through our reverse osmosis system and then into another 1,250 gallon tank. When we turn on the water in the house, there is yet another pump that sends water from the RO tank out to the house or the garden or wherever we need it. Right now all of our hose bibs use the RO water. The only way to get straight well water is from a faucet on the pipe that feeds the RO system. Bear with me. I know this is boring stuff, but it is the basis for my tale of woe, hair pulling and teeth gnashing.

Back when we bought the house I had the whole system inspected and overhauled where necessary (same with the septic system). One of the things that made me nervous was the possibility of running completely out of processed water and not knowing about it until it was too late. While the well has good head pressure (I think it's like 9 gallons per minute, but I can't remember for sure), the RO system only processes about 1.5 gallons per minute which means that if you run out of water it could be hours before you have enough to use again. So one of the modifications I had made to the system was the installation of a float switch that would turn off the pump to the house--effectively turning off the water--when the RO tank went below 700 gallons. This configuration gives us enough warning that we can moderate our water usage so we don't run out.

However the reserve system can be overridden by flipping a switch in the pump house--that's how you get to keep on using water after you've found out you're running low. I managed to forget that I had switched the system from normal to reserve last week when the contractors were going through a lot of water, and I had never switched it back. Then to compound my error, the lightning knocked out the RO system on Saturday requiring a system reboot that I didn't know about until we ran out of water today. So I rebooted the RO filter and it started working again (and that was about 10:00 this morning). We finally had water again this evening at 9:00. I'm not sure what took so long to get us any at all, but it was grim times today. Now the system is back in Normal mode, and everything seems to be working fine. Dave got to experience all of this excitement himself as he took the day off today and so was also without water all day. Tonight was better, and was the source for the title of this post.

Ever since we got married, Dave and I have taken a game when we go out to dinner for date night. Over the years we have played many different games in restaurants and even convinced Jessie to play with us once or twice. Tonight we experienced Vigilante, a local gaming bar and restaurant. It was So Cool! I don't know if it started as a kickstarter project or just went there for more funds, but the founders really put together a cool place. I could go on and on about the features they put into it--custom gaming tables, awesome selection of games, a button at each seat to call your server, electrical and usb outlets at each seat, and a button at each table announcing that you are interested in other patrons joining in on your game. Top it all off with infused-sake boilermakers (called drops) and good food and you have an amazing place for an evening. But don't take my word for it--look at the website or Facebook page for pity's sake!