Hope sprouts eternal

I'd never given it much thought, but I can now tell you that having "File police report" as the first item on your day-planner is not auspicious.

Officer Valdes did hid best to make it pleasant, taking down the description of the wicker chairs, stools and table that had been stolen from our porch overnight, right down to the blue ticking.

He laughed when I said samaritan decorators may have borrowed the old set to repaint and reupholster it, and he said nice things about the house.

After that, less eventful stuff: the gas guys didn't show up, nor did the plumbers, the electricians or the long-lost HVAC guy. Robert got a little dubious about calling for inspections by the end of the week.

But, with security in mind, we did finish installing all the countersunk anchors in the deck for the pool safety cover (required here, if you don't want to install hard-wired alarms on your gate doors), and I started putting up our smart security system inside the house.

A tiring day, so dinner from Fausto's -- but while I was on my way to the apartment with it, I looked up and noticed fresh, bright green leaves on the mahoganies that had shed so prodigiously last week.

And later, tiny sprouts on our plumerias -- finally. Others around town are already in glorious blooms, but our bare stumps week after week led me to think ours hadn't survived.

I'll take any reason for optimism I can get.