The waning of winter

I drove down to Vacaville today...my second drive there in 3 days.  Two days ago, I went for a check up with my therapist, after two years.  It was interesting that the line of people checking in at mental health stretched halfway down the hallway.  Deb tells me that in these days there are so many people depressed about the situation in this country that such lines are not uncommon.  I guess if nothing else, #45 has made lots of work for therapists.

She recommended I go on a Trump diet, so I did not watch the State of the Union, figuring it would be very long (it was), cover most of the same things (it did), and that I would get the highlights on talk shows the next day (I did).  But by not watching it, apparently i missed the best part -- which was watching the look on Nancy Pelosi's face throughout the speech.

I have gotten the jist on the talk shows, but it doesn't make me any less depressed.  If there is any up side it's that hearing how many times he called for ending all investigations as a sign of "unity" it's apparent he's sweating the results.  Never have so many in any administration been so corrupt and the axe is going to fall sooner or later.  Fortunately, #45 has no control over the New York courts, whether he manages to succeed in stifling the Mueller report or not

Today was more fun, meeting Char and her cousin David (and his wife Carol) for lunch at Fenton's.  Who can be depressed eating one of those crab salad sandwiches and drinking a vanilla malt.  It's a good thing Fenton's is a half hour drive.  It would be entirely too tempting to pop in more often if it was any closer!

On the ride home, rather than take I-5, I took the less popular highway that went to Winters and then over to Davis.  It was a beautiful clear day and I loved seeing the look of all those walnut orchards with the ?mustard growing under them.

Walnut orchards are the only ones that I can always identify because they graft English walnut trees onto black walnut stock so there is always that dark base on the trees.  There are a lot of walnut orchards around here and at this time of year they stand leafless, which has its own type of stark beauty.  The road I drove home was filled with orchard after orchard.

But though it was -30⁰ in Minnesota today, I hear, and snow covers half the country, here in California the promise of spring is at hand.

I don't think we are quite finished with winter, but here and there are trees where blossoms are starting to pop out.  Every year at this time I think that it's too early for blossoms, but since I've been saying that for many years now, I guess early February is not too early for blossoms in this area!

This back road home takes me across the graffiti bridge

Stevenson Bridge is a local landmark due to its age and unique appearance: it's covered in graffiti. Love messages, insults, and downright creepy messages can be found scrawled across the entire span of bridge. Not a nook is uncovered leaving spectators wondering what the original color of the bridge is.  I'm not sure when it started being covered with graffiti, but we've lived here 45 years and I don't remember it ever NOT being covered with graffiti.

As of this writing, Walt's computer still isn't "up and running."  They have gone back to Costco to see if they can figure out the problem.  I hope it is running by the time Tom leaves, 'cause it's certain that if he hasn't been able to solve the problem there is no way Walt or I would be able to either!

We may not get cable after all before Tom leaves, but I'm sure Ned can help us walk through that task when he gets home.

Fall Forward

What was that strange sensation my body was feeling?

It was sometime last evening when I realized I was ... dare I say it? ...  cold!  I was actually shivering and I got up and put on a sweatshirt.  When was the last time I wore a sweatshirt?

Can it be that we have at last survived this abominable summer and are looking at fall?

I checked predicted temps for the rest of the week and there are 3 days at the end with the temp predicted to be in the low 80s (which I used to think of as "hot" and now regard as "pleasant"), but otherwise the temps will be in the middle to high 70s and I may not have to hang up my sweatshirt, but put it to good use.

I don't know how many days over 100⁰ we have had since the first one, but July hit at least 90⁰ every day for the first time since 1877.  I could not find how many days over 100 we have had, as most articles about the heat wave were written in June...and there were certainly a lot of hot, hot days in July and August.

I love spring.  It is a beautiful time around here, with blossoms exploding all over town, and the orchards outside of town looking like clouds of white everywhere.

The thing I don't like about spring is that it is too short and is followed all too quickly by summer and, with global warming, it seems to get hotter every year.  Climate change deny-ers should come and spend a summer in the Sacramento valley.

But I have to admit that summer in Davis is significantly better than summer in San Francisco.  Here we don't know how many days over 100 we will have, but we know we will have them and so houses are equipped with air conditioning and stores are equipped with air conditioning.

(I remember when we bought our first car here, the first year we lived here, and we opted not to get air conditioning because of the added cost.  "It won't be that bad," I said, optimistically.  Then summer came.  When we bought our next car, the very first thing I wanted in the car was air conditioning!)

Much as I enjoy spring, I love fall because the trees are also beautiful, with the reds and yellows and oranges everywhere and when the leaves finally fall, it is the start of winter, of cold temps, and rain, and my kinda weather.

So I am looking forward to reacquainting myself with my sweatshirts in the near future and enjoying the brisk winds of autumn and looking forward to winter.

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Yesterday, I wrote about Pole Line Rd and our memorable trip down that road.  We were trying to figure out when it was and Char said that it had to be 1963 if their baby daughter was along.  I thought Walt had bought the red Tempest convertible shortly before we married in 1965, but he remembers that he got out of the Air Force reserve in 1963 and bought the car shortly after that...so 1963 is probably when it was.

In 2013, I told the story of Walt's old Rambler convertible, the car that hated me. 

You don't want to anthropomorphize inanimate objects, but I still maintain that the car hated me.  And it got angry with Walt when he went off to boot camp and left it for me to use.  It about bankrupted me when it developed brake problems...or at least some disreputable dealer told me it developed brake problems.

I still remember when Walt called from boot camp.  I was so excited to hear his voice (we only had "letters" in those days, so I was writing to him about the problems I was having with the car).  He opened the conversation with "What are you doing to my CAR?" and then went on to berate me for everything I'd done wrong.  I was in tears when I hung up.  I'm sure the Rambler was very satisfied about that!

We left our wedding reception in the Rambler, but only drove it as far as where Walt had parked the Tempest and we left for our honeymoon in that while someone else took the Rambler back to our apartment.


The story of our finally getting rid of the Rambler is unique and also detailed in the old 2013 journal entry.

A Touch of Narcolepsy

My Weather app said that it was 109 in Davis today, a fact confirmed by a friend who actually went outside this afternoon.  Walt says it wasn't that hot here, only 105, I believe, but it still was hot.

While I was blissfully unaware of the ravages of the sun outside, as I had my computer and my book to read and those fans I spoke of a couple of days ago, somehow my body knew that it was damn hot--and what do logical people do when it's too hot to do anything else?  They sleep!

I absolutely could not stay awake today.  I felt like a newborn.  I just woke up long enough to eat and to go to the bathroom, then within minutes I was back asleep again.  I had all sorts of plans for things I was going to do with the fans blowing on me, but I never did any of them.

Monday is NCIS rerun day and though the TV was on, I slept through most of every episode that I watched.  I am reading a new book, which is very interesting, but would fall asleep after a couple of pages (this is another reason why I have a Kindle...when the book falls out of your hands, you don't lose your place).

I did manage to drag myself up and into the kitchen to cook dinner.  We were having tacos and I was eager to try my new taco holders.

They worked great and the pork tacos from Home Chef were delicious too, but when I was finished I sat back in the recliner and within not much more than an hour I was fighting sleep again.

I was trying to find the medical name for the opposite of insomnia (which is my usual problem) and it took me forever to finally find "narcolepsy."  But in the process, I went on an interesting Google adventure.  That's the beauty of Google.  You put in a simple question and amazing things pop up.
I found the translation of the word "insomnia" in nearly 100 different languages.  Languages I'd never heard of, like Cebuano, Cichewa, Gujarati, Hausa, Marathi, Sesoto, Xhosa, etc.  And there were also languages which surprised me that they would need a word for insomnia.  Like Zulu and Samoan.  Apparently there are people all over the world who are having problems staying asleep, but very few who are having problems staying awake.

Naturally, I had to check out some of these translations.

The Frisian translation of insomnia, for example, is sliepeleazens.  The Luxumbourgish word for it is "insomnia."  (I think I can remember that one)  The Yoruba word is "airorunsun," which is kind of interesting if you think about it!  Zulu has two words for insomnia, nokuqwasha and ukungatholi ubuthongo (that might keep me awake right there!).  The Maltese suffer from nuqqas ta'rqad while the Irish word is neamchodladh, but it in Scotland it is also "insomnia."

I find it fascinating that this is such a common problem that nearly everyone has a word for it.
That didn't make for much of an exciting day, but it was just what happened.

Polly drove me crazy in  the evening.  She did her usual 'stand outside and bark until they call me in and give me a treat' routine.  She always settles down after that and I don't hear from her again until it's time to get up.

But tonight she was VERY upset that I would not let her outside again.  She kept running into me here and put her paws on my lap and whine.  I wasn't going to let her outside just so she could bark, so I ignored her for abut 15 minutes, but she kept whining and whining and whining so I finally let her out.  She was out that door like a shot, but whatever was making her want to be outside must not have been there any more because she was outside for about 10 minutes before she barked a little and when I called her in, she ran right in, barked for a treat (which I did not give her) and then gave up and settled down finally.

Now it is 11 p.m. and I have to decide if I'm going t try to go to sleep or not.  I can't believe that I actually feel sleepy, but I have a strong feeling that if I go to sleep now, in two hours, I'll be having to deal with ukungatholi ubuthongo again.

Please Let This Be the Last Gasp

The weather has been downright pleasant the past couple of weeks.  In the low to mid 80s, with occasional spikes to the high 80s or maybe as hot as 92.  I was so happy to see that finally summer was beginning to slip away and hoped that soon we would be seeing the leaves change color and enjoying the occasional cool breeze.

Yesterday it was 104 and today was predicted to be 107 today.  Triple digits are predicted for the rest of the week.  Groan.

I thought that was OK because we were getting out of town later this morning on a busman's holiday, down to meet Char and go to the Lamplighters' latest production of Yeomen of the Guard  What does a theater critic do on her day off?  Go to the theater, of course.

This production was being put on in Livermore, which is on the east side of the bay from San Francisco.  I thought I'd see what temps to expect in Livermore.  As I said it was 104 here yesterday and at the same time it was 103 in Livermore, so I didn't take a jacket with me.

Sigh.

Autumn, you are toying with my feelings!  Hurry up and rid me of this cursed summer we have been not enjoying.

I don't really know why I'm complaining about the weather.  We have an air conditioned house, I have a water cooler that dispenses chilled water 24/7, there is a big fan in the family room to complement the air conditioning, and I even have a small fan next to my chair that I can turn on if the larger fan doesn't provide enough cool air.

If it had not been for going to Atria yesterday, I would not have had a clue what the temperatures were outside.

I started reading a Tess Gerritsen novel ("I Know a Secret"), figuring I would take my usual two hours of reading time before doing anything else.  Only the big problems with Tess Gerritsen is that you can't just put the book down in 2 hours and come back to it.  In fact, I had to force myself to put it down in order to go to Atria for an hour and as soon as I got home, I was back in the book again.  I almost forgot to cook dinner, but did tear myself away from the book to get some food on the table before returning to finish the last few chapters of the book.

This is book #11 in the Rizzoli and Isles series, the books on which the TV show of the same name is loosely based.  I say "loosely" because Jane Rizzoli is nothing like the character in the early books (who always struck me as more like Rhea Pearlman, than Angie Harmon).

The book Rizzoli was short, pugnacious, and eventually married.  Harmon is tall, gorgeous, and dating.  (And does a detective really wear spike heels to an investigation?)  I have come to suspend disbelief and enjoy Angie Harmon in the role but when I read the books, I still see Rhea Pearlman.
But Gerritsen really knows how to craft a story that will hold your interest.  I can't think of any of her books that I have dawdled over.

The visit with my mother went well.  I ran into her roommate Marge's daughter in the hall.  I had not met her before.  She was holding a bracelet in her hand and said that her mother had been "shopping" again and she was on her way to return to bracelet to the office so they could find out which resident she had taken it from.  I'm sure she has taken things from my mother's apartment.  Fortunately my mother doesn't miss them and she has nothing of any real value in there anyway, so it's just easier not to make an issue of it.

She was in good spirits.  Her arm seems to be healing nicely.  She complains of pain, but does not shriek as she did the last time I saw her, so it's doing much better.  At 100+ degrees, I am not going to take her for a doctor follow-up to have the doctor say it's doing fine and come back if there are problems.  It's hard enough getting her outside when the weather is reasonable.

Her main concern today is that she is getting old.  We spent the better part of an hour speaking on that theme until I decided it was time to get home and back to the blood gore of my book.

The show this afternoon was wonderful, of course.  Char brought her friend Connie, who has been to Lamplighters shows before, but was not familiar with Yeomen so it was a voyage of discovery for her.  Is there anything more impressive than a bunch of yeomen, in costume, singing their hearts out?

I have a soft spot in my heart for this show, and mixed feelings since Gilbert died during a run of Yeomen.  He was not performing, of course (one of his best roles was that of Jack Point in this show) but was conducting the orchestra.

I am particular about my Jack Points and Lawrence Ewing, who did the role today, nailed it.  Oboist Kathy Connor was telling us that he ends up crying at the end of every show, and you could just see that he embodied Jack Point's pain as he is scorned by the lady he has loved for so many years.

W.S. Gilbert's stage notes say that Point "falls insensible" and never lets the audience know definitively if the character lives or dies.  Lawrence says that for him, there is no question but that Point dies and his death is very touching -- no matter how many times I have seen this show (and I have seen it dozens of times), it still brings me to tears.

Walt with Kathy Connor after the show

We're Havin' a Heat Wave

Today was the kind of day you wanted to hunker somewhere near a fan with a tall cool glass of ice water, crank up the air conditioning and not leave the house.  It was predicted to be the hottest day, perhaps of the month.

But, alas, this was also the day I was scheduled to have my eye measured in Sacramento for my upcoming cataract surgery (in November).  

The day actually started with reports of a magnitude 4 earthquake in the Bay Area.  Too small to be felt here, but one always wonders about precursors to "the big one."  This looked like it might have been on the Hayward fault...and I will be there tomorrow, going to book club a few miles down the road apiece.

Since I had to leave the house today anyway, I went to my mother's first to get her laundry, to be returned to her on Wednesday when I go for lunch.  We visited for a bit, and she insisted I had told her nothing about my lunch with my grammar school friends (sigh), but I let it go. 

The plan was to leave Atria and head for Sacramento, but there was a text message from Walt letting me know that I had left my cane at home.  I texted back that I'd be right there, but he didn't see that message because, bless him, he had hopped on his bike to come to Atria to let me know, in case I didn't see the message.  But I had, I drove home, got the cane and then headed to Sacramento.

It was 1 p.m. and this was the temperature as I started to back out of our driveway.

It is amazing to me that I have come to think of anything under 100 degrees as "not all that bad."

I drove to the eye clinic near Cal Expo and it was about 102 when I got there.  The appointment went quickly.  The woman doing the measuring had C.O. on her jacket, which I found out later is "certified orthoptist."  There were two patient chairs and four machines (one a computer) and she had to put my information into each machine in turn.  I had the eye measured in the first machine, and then the second, and then the third, then tlted backwards, like in a dental chair (but not as comfortable), where she put in drops (not to dilate) and then stuck an eye cup on the eye and washed it with water and took more pictures.

And then it was over.  I was back in the parking lot so quickly the ice in my diet coke was still icy and cold.

I saw that rush hour traffic was starting, so instead of going on the freeway I took the backroads to the Causeway, where it was still backed up, but I'd gotten around a lot of it.  

When I pulled into the driveway this was the temperature.

Thank goodness we were having leftovers that could be heated in the microwave for dinner.  Forecast for tomorrow seems to be less than 100, which isn't good by any means, but a heck of a lot better than 105.

Batten down the hatches

I got an e-mail from the City of Davis warning me about the upcoming major storm we are supposed to be having in the next two days. According to the National Weather Service predicts that it could be the strongest this area has had in years.

Current forecasts predict sustained winds of 20-30 mph with gusts of 40-50 mph and 1-3 inches of rain in the valley. The rain is predicted to begin Wednesday night and continue into Thursday. The heaviest rain is predicted for Thursday and stormy weather is expected to last into Friday.

The warning came with a bunch of things we should do in preparation, including grocery shop and fill tanks with gas. I did my bit to prepare and went to spend $130 on groceries. Not only that, but I bought a lot of ingredients with the intention of doing holiday baking while the wind blows and the rain falls.

Of course with MY luck this month, the power will go out!

---

One thing about Walt....he's a really good guy and he puts up with a lot from me, mostly without complaint.  My latest was a doozie.

About a year ago, Brianna and Lacie gave me these really nice earrings.  They are tiny, but sparkly and I love them because they gave them to me.  I wear earrings 24/7 and I immediately put these on and wore them from there on out. 

The only problem is that some earrings--and these fall into that category--start to hurt my earrings after a couple of months and I have to swap them with other earrings.  The last time I saw the girls, I was not wearing these and Brianna commented on it.  So I wanted to be sure to to swap them back to the stars before we go to Santa Barbara this month.

First, the earrings are smaller than showed in the picture.  I took out the dangling comedy/tragedy earrings and put them on the counter, then took the first star earring in my hand, bobbled it, and it went down the drain of the sink.

I cautiously approached Walt with my problem and he asked how badly I wanted the earring back because he couldn't reach it with any implement, but he could take the drain pipe off.  I hesitated, but told him I really would like to have it back, but told him that if it was going to be too difficult, to forget about it.

Then I went off to San Rafael with my mother.

When I got home, he told me he had retrieved my earring, but that the pipes were so old (41+ years) that he couldn't get the leaking to stop and he would have to get a plumber to seal everything.

I have the earring back in place now, but I feel guilty for being such a doofus as to try to put it in my ear while standing over a sink.  I won't make that mistake again.

But thanks to my wonderful husband, all is well that ends well...well, after we hire a plumber to fix things.

Thank you, dear!

Havin' a Heat Wave

Anyway you look at it, it's hot here this week!

I'm not sure how "Blazing" is less hot than "Hot" and it seems to me that "Scorching" would be the hottest of all, but someone at the newspaper was apparently having fun with this forecast graphic!  One thing is clear, I'm sticking close to home all weekend!

The thing I was most leery about when we moved from the relatively cool Bay Area up to the definitely hot Sacramento valley was how I would cope with the heat. I was remembering the long-ago day when Peach and I were walking home from the "little store" near her house in Citrus Heights (outside of Sacramento) in 113 degree weather, the pavement was soft because it was melting, and we were standing in the middle of the street, our sandals sinking into the asphalt, while she braided my hair.

There have been times when I have hated the heat and been wilting, but after nearly 41 years here, I don't really mind it all that much unless the electricity goes out.

The thing about heat is that when you live in a place where you know it's going to be hot in the summer, every place is equipped with air conditioning.   So you go from an air conditioned house to an air conditioned car to an air conditioned business and your actual time dealing with scorching sunshine is minimal, unless you choose to be out in the midday sun. We're very spoiled.

When you live in the San Francisco area, where fog is more likely to follow you in the summer than it is to be hot, an 80 degree day can be brutal because there is no air conditioning anywhere.

I remember a trip to Houston many years ago, in the middle of summer.   My friend Mike was hoping someone could come to "babysit" his partner, Bill, who had just come out of the hospital after a lengthy stay and Mike was nervous about going to work, for fear that he would come home and find Bill dead (both are dead now, sadly).  It was the most unusual experience I have had with regard to heat.   Yes there was the air conditioned "house-car-business" business and for the most part despite the heat and the humidity, it was not as uncomfortable as I expected because of the a/c.  But I had never been somewhere that did not cool down at night.   It would be 100+ in the daytime and, desperate for cool outside air, I remember going out into the yard in the middle of the night and finding that it was not that much cooler.  Probably high 90s.  It never cooled down.

The other problem I had in Houston was that I would drive to the store, getting into my air conditioned car in the air conditioned garage and drive to the air conditioned store, but first I had to park in the hot parking lot and walk to the store.  This would not have been bad except for the humidity.  It was so humid that when I stepped out of the car, two rows from the store, my glasses fogged up.   And I'm so blind that I can't see without my glasses, so just getting to the store and all its air conditioned bliss was a challenge.

But I've grown accustomed to the heat here and don't really think about it as much as I did when we first moved here.  It's an unpleasantness to be gotten through, but sooner or later autumn will be here, with cool breezes and beautifully colored leaves and after that will be winter and maybe the hope of rain.

Seasons pass too quickly these days.  It seems like we just had summer 2013 and here it is again, relentlessly returning for another go-round.

Comes the Deluge

We have been meaning to drive around Davis and look at all the decorated houses ever since the whole Christmas season started, but we keep forgetting to do it.  Finally tonight was going to be the night.  It had been a quiet day.   My mother said she still wasn't feeling well, so we gave up on the idea of taking her out to dinner for Christmas.  I had a nap, during which Walt rode his bike down to the rental car place to pick up the car we will be taking to Santa Barbara.  He rubber-banded a note to the phone to tell me where he was, because he was expecting word from the Honda Hospital about the car.  Sure enough they called to say that it was all fixed.

So as soon as he got home with the rental car, we got back in the rental car and drove to get the real car.  Then as soon as both cars were back home, I drove him back downtown to where he'd left his bike so he could ride it home.  We finally had all of our vehicles at home.

The other day I had seen a sign for Dungeness crabs at the newly opened Whole Foods here in town.  I hadn't been in the store yet but I decided to go get a crab for dinner.  Of course as soon as I got in the car and was headed to the store, the rain, which had been threatening all day, started, but the parking lot wasn't crowded and I was able to get in, get my crab and get back to the car without getting too wet.

I asked Walt if he wanted to eat first or look at lights first.   He chose to eat first, so we dove into that lovely crab.

As we were pulling out of the driveway, the skies opened up.  I swear it rained so hard I wasn't sure if we were looking for Santa or Noah.  But we decided we were going to do this thing and so we mushed on, "mush" being a surprisingly appropriate word at this point.  It was raining so hard it was difficult to see out the window.

Walt was pulling over from time to time to check the map that the newspapers had printed of the prize winning houses.

When we got to the first house, it was raining, but I was going to hop out and take a picture anyway, until the rain started raining harder and harder and I didn't want to drown the camera, so Walt did a u-turn and pulled up opposite the house so I could roll the window down quickly and take a picture.  This house won for "best use of space"

Even with the window being rolled down only for a couple of seconds, the right side of my body was still plenty wet.

We went on to see lots of other houses, blending religious (not much) with secular (lots).  It seemed that the theme was "if it will light up, we'll find a place for it."  And somehow when all the lights are lit, who cares if the 3 Wise Men are walking with a reindeer that dwarfs them in size or that an angel lights the way to the mailbox where you can mail your letters to Santa.

We had decided not to go and see my old boss Derrick's house.  Derrick, no longer a full time employee of the newspaper, is now eligible for a prize and handily won for best "theme" house.  His Peanuts and other characters make the house a delight every year.  But he lives on the other side of town and the rain was so bad, we didn't want to drive that far.

However, as we left the section we were in, the rain almost stopped and we decided to go out to Derrick's anyway.  And, of course, a block from his house the deluge came again, so I never did get out of the car, though we stayed long enough to hear his radio station and for me to snap a couple of pictures.

It was nearly 10 when we got home, but we have now seen (sort of) the lights of Davis.  Some of the more spectacular ones were turned off, either because of the weather or because of the time of night.  And we were NOT the only ones driving around looking at houses, either!

The Autumn Leaves

Overnight it is Autumn.

Yesterday we had that beautiful sunny, warm day -- but not too warm -- and this morning I woke up and it is fall.

Overnight the wind has blown small hillocks of leaves onto the ground that crunch when you walk from the house to the car.  There will be a lot of sweeping to be done in the coming days/weeks, as our fruitless mulberry denudes itself slowly.

I haven't noticed a lot of fall color yet, but soon my favorite Chinese pistachio tree, a couple of blocks from our house, should be bursting into a riot of red leaves before it, too, turns brown and loses its leaves.

I think fall is my favorite season.  It would hands down be my favorite if we lived somewhere that gave us the kinds of displays of fall color that are seen on the wallpaper for this month's entries, but I love the departure of the hot weather and the breezes coming in again.  And best of all, when Autumn passes, what arrives is winter with its rainy weather.  While spring is beautiful, it is followed by summer and the hot days again.

I sat in the book store this afternoon and looked toward the open door and saw two chunks of something on the rug.  I thought something had fallen off a shelf and broken (probably because I have no depth perception!) and couldn't remember hearing anything drop.  But when I got up to check, it was two leaves that had blown in from outside.

Peter had left the door open when he went home today and as it was not letting in hot air, as it has for so many weeks, but merely fresh air, I didn't shut it.  There is a tree right outside the door which has already lost a lot of its leaves and each time the wind blew, apparently it was blowing leaves and bits of leaves inside the store.

When I left at the end of the day, it was downright chilly and I was sorry that I hadn't brought some sort of jacket or sweater with me!

Today I had lunch with my friend Kathy in Sacramento and wondered if I'd be able to get back to Davis in time for my shift at Logos at 2.  Worked out perfectly.  I even had time to stop off at home and get Walt to drive me downtown.

Kathy and I bemoaned Obama's performance at the first debate and shared our hopes for a better showing by Biden in this evening's debate.  She and I have lunch together on the third Thursday of each month and agreed that next month we will either be having a celebration (we strongly hope) or be consoling each other.

It was a fairly quiet day at the store, with a couple of highlights, the best of which were two college age girls who came in and were fairly ecstatic about all the things they were finding.  One squealed when she came across a copy of Homer's "The Odyssey" and said that she collects copies of "The Odyssey."  She ended up buying a copy of "The Odyssey," and introduction to Chaucer, and two "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" books!   I loved that.

The other girl positively jumped in delight when she found a copy of Oscar Wild's "The Picture of Dorian Gray." She said that she would have to bring her sister into the store and that they would probably "buy out the store."   It is really very comforting to realize that a love for reading is alive and well among the young people who visit the store!

Another woman came in looking for books about New Orleans and the Appalachian Trail.  We actually didn't have either, but I suggested Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods," which I thought she would enjoy.  I love it when I can give advice on a book or introduce a book to someone.

Susan relieved me a little early so Walt and I could get home in time for the Vice Presidential debate, which I thought was very good.  I think both Republicans and Democrats would feel good about it, though I don't see it changing anybody's mind about anything.  The two sides are so different that it should be a clear choice for people.  But it was good to see Biden looking so strong in the debate.

In the end, Walt and I decided we both wanted to vote for moderator Martha Raddatz!

Memories Are Made of This

I said in yesterday's entry to check today for how the morning went.   When we last left the intrepid dutiful daughter, she had been roused from a sound sleep and accused of breaking the television while she slept.  Fortunately, that matter was rectified.

When Peach and I are there for Cousins Day, if my mother wakes before we do, she quietly goes out the door, gets the paper, turns on the light over the table and sits there reading until we wake up.  The table light is low level and has a shade on it, so it directs light down on the paper and that works fine.

At 5:45 this morning, after not having slept until 2 a.m. since being roused for breaking the TV, I was rudely awakened by all the lights in the kitchen coming on as my mother started making coffee and noisily unloading dishes from the dishwasher.   I awoke with a start and when I mentioned her having awakened me, she said "Oh?  I didn't realize you were asleep."  I said "You mean that the fact that I was lying down with my eyes closed wasn't a hint?"  Strangely, she then started doing other things in the house, leaving the dishwasher opened in the kitchen with all but the silverware put away.  This may be normal behavior for ME, but it is highly unusual behavior for my mother.  I was glad that we were seeing the doctor this morning.

As I have mentioned several times, many of us have noticed a decline in my mother's short-term memory.  I finally wrote to her doctor about it, because I realized that based on what goes on between them at her appointments, her doctor doesn't really have a clue about it.  The doctor called me, we had a long chat and she suggested that it might be a good idea to do a baseline memory assessment. She also wanted to check my mother's reflexes to see if she felt that my mother was still safe to drive.

Initially, I told my mother that I had read about this test and thought it would be good for her to take it, but after she asked me several times why I thought it was a good idea, I finally told her the truth--that many of us had noticed a decline and that I had spoken with her doctor, who had suggested it.  She was quiet, but didn't protest.

The doctor, bless her, was very discreet.  She didn't mention having spoken to me, so I offered that I had told my mother the truth, which made this all much easier.

She passed the reflexes test with flying colors, though the doctor suggested that instead of our driving her places, we let her drive US so we can have a better sense of how safe she is on the road.

As for the memory test, she could see that she definitely has short-term memory loss, which she assured both of us was not all that unusual for a 92 year old.  It doesn't seem to cause her any impediments and I am aware that she has already made accommodations, whether she is aware of her memory loss of not (e.g., she can't remember how to cook anything any more, so she only eats TV dinners and salads, or cereal for breakfast, so concern about her leaving burners lit are slight, since she almost never uses her stove).  Now that there is a baseline in her records, the doctor wants to test her again in 6-12 months to see if there is a rapid decline.   She also talked with my mother about thinking now about moving somewhere in the future and perhaps making arrangements for that, for when/if that becomes a necessity.  

We talked about her memory loss on the drive home and I mentioned specific things that I had observed or others had observed.  I know she is terrified of losing her mind (as she puts it), since her mother had dementia at the time of her death and her sister died in an Alzheimers facility.  She was quiet on the ride home.   I think we have discussed this enough and won't bring it up again, until it becomes a greater problem, but I'm feeling very good about having had the baseline done.

I didn't stay for lunch but got on the road, eager to continue my Diana Gabaldon audio book.  It was such a gorgeous day to be driving.   There were beautiful cumulus clouds all across a clear, blue-blue sky... 

...and, as it had rained recently, the drive through American Canyon was as gorgeous as it is every spring, the hills a deep green, with the blue skies above, and here and there a horse in a pasture.  

I  was sorry that there was never a place to pull off when I found a patch of golden poppies, the official flower of California, but they were there, thick in spots.  It's like this for only a couple of weeks a year, it seems, before the vegetation grows tall and begins to turn "brown" (Nora, from Ireland, saw it as "golden," which shows you what a difference a perspective makes!   "I'm so tired of all that green in Ireland," she said more than once!)

I got off before our usual exit into Davis because it was so beautiful, I wanted to drive out through the fields and through the University agricultural area, where some of the orchards were filled with trees in blossom.  I came across a bunch of trees that looked like this:

There seem to be little bags made of newspapers wrapped around the branches.  I'm sure someone involved with agriculture can tell me why.  But they looked very odd indeed.

So I am home again, the tests have been done, all is better with the world than it felt 3 days ago, and life is good.  We also decided that since we have spent 2 days together and eaten 3 meals together, and that since Easter isn't a major holiday for our family, she doesn't mind if I go to Walt's brother's instead of to her house on Sunday, so I am going to do that.  It will be nice to be with the larger family on Easter, I have to admit.  I have skipped that dinner for the past 3-4 years now, due to my mother's unwillingness to socialize with a large group of people who are mostly strangers to her.

2 Dog Night

When I woke up this morning, it was nice and warm in the house. The weather has been so cold this week that I've been closing the sliding glass door in the family room at night when we go to sleep, rather than leaving it open a bit for the puppies to go out through the night. It was nice not to get up shivering.

But then I came into my office and it was like walking into a refrigerator.

The dog door is cut in the wall here. It has served countless dogs over the past couple of decades, but some time ago, the frame got ripped off by some obstreperous dogs. This means that the magnet-type strip that keeps the plastic flap closed when not in use has long since ceased to work.

Normally, I don't notice it, but when the temperatures drop into the 30s overnight, when there is a slight breeze, and when the heat vent has never worked in this office, the rest of the house could be in the 80s and I'd still freeze. For the past few days, I can only really stand to be working in here for about an hour, then I have to go out and run my hands under warm water...or find something extra warm to wrap up in while I'm working.

I had never thought of asking Walt is he could fix the dog door. I've just lived with it and unless you are actually in this office, you probably don't notice how cold it can get.

This morning I finally asked him if, now that the set he was building was finished, he could either put in a new dog door or find a way to replace the flap that is in there now. Hopefully as we head into the colder winter temperatures, we can get it fixed and I won't freeze trying to work in here.

I had told Peach I would go to her house today to see about helping her get an Etsy site set up for the Crafty Cuzzins (horrendously complicated for bizarre reasons). We worked on it for a couple of hours and she fixed lunch for me. As I left, Bob was in the recliner with their two dogs.

I commented on how little and puny his dogs were!

When I got home, the house was very cold because during the day I do leave the back door open for the dogs. I tried getting some work done in my office, but it was just too bloody cold.

I finally realized that Bob had the right idea for how to beat the cold...only I had a much better solution than he did.

It's MUCH warmer when you're under 60 lbs of dog! (Yes, Walt weighed Higgins tonight and he is just about 30 lbs, Freddie isn't all that much lighter--and Dexter is a little over 5 lbs. Of course you can't get much done this way, but I sure wasn't cold any more!!!

Neither Snow nor Sleet...

We don't actually get snow or sleet here, but apparently rain has defeated our mail carrier. It's the first storm of the season and yes, it's a big one, but we've had worse and still had our mail delivered. But it's 5 p.m. as I write this and there is no sign of our mail carrier. The mail usually arrives around noon here.

The rain has been a big surprise for the puppies. I saw Higgins go outside, look up quizically, wander out under a tree and then run back, shaking water off his back. Eliza just sits at the back door wondering what has turned her playground into a swimming pool.

But their day started out as a big surprise anyway. I have been sleeping in the recliner since I saw the nerve conduction doctor. She suggested keeping my arm straight as much as possible, including sleeping with my arm outstretched and that is much easier to do in the recliner than it is on the couch. It's too early to know if it's helping or not. If it doesn't help, no biggie, as long as the condition doesn't get worse, but I figure I'll give it a fighting chance.

Anyway, since we are one "pack," the puppies, who had started sleeping in the living room when I slept there, are now sleeping on the big dog bed which is right in front of the recliner. So when I woke up this morning, I could hear the quiet whimpering sounds of hungry puppies. When I sat up I was greeted with delighted wriggling bodies, tails wagging, tongues lapping and everybody telling me that I had slept so long that they were sure they were going to die of starvation.

I got up out of the chair, stood up and they went into a frenzy of excitement.

"She's Up! She's Up! She will feed us!!!" as the puppies all galloped off down the hall ahead of me.

When we got to the doorway into the kitchen, they took a sharp right and then came to a screetching stop when I kept on going down the hall into the bathroom. There are some things that have to take place before puppies get fed, but you could just see the "WFT?????" look on the face of all of them. "She's UP? And she's not FEEDING us????" They way they spun around and galloped down the hall following me was like something straight out of a Disney cartoon.

With all the rain, the puppies, who have been spending a lot of time outside, have, as Walt predicted, gone into "full poop mode," and I have "flushed the living room" several times throughout the day. I can't really complain about these guys because they have been doing a lot of their business -- well over half, I am assuming (based on how much I've cleaned up today) outside instead of inside. And who can blame them for not wanting to go poop outside when not even the mailman wants to walk the streets in the rain!

They've also discovered all sorts of wonderful new things to play with. It actually started last night when they somehow got hold of the earphones for my iPod and chewed off one of the buds.

And then today, it was full assault on The Wall.

Now, again in fairness to the puppies, this is a hole that Paul kicked in the wall in one of his angry outbursts some 20 years ago that we just never have gotten around to fixing. But the puppies discovered that it was something new to chew on and they ripped off part of the paint-covered wall and dug out some more of the insides of the wall as well. We may actually have to do something about finally getting the hole fixed, though by now it has become the "Paul Sykes Memorial Hole" and perhaps we'll just put up a plaque instead.

The puppies also continue to tear away at a strip in the middle of the living room rug. I'm of the feeling that this is a GREAT play toy for them because (a) they are having such fun working on it and (b) we will be tearing up the rug after they leave anyway, in preparation for eventually putting in the new floor and the the more time they spend tearing up the rug, the less time they are spending finding something else to tear up.

They are growing like weeds these days and eating me out of house and home. I got two medium size bags of large dog puppy kibble from the SPCA on Saturday and they have already finished over half of the first bag. They eat 2-3 times a day and take about 4 cups of kibble at a feeding...and scarf it down almost instantly (no wonder they are such pooping machines).

But the surprises for the boys will continue this week, as they are going to the vet on Thursday to be neutered. If my walk to the bathroom prompted a "WTF" look, you can just imagine what they are going to think when they wake from anesthesia with their barely formed manhood missing!

---

P.S. The mail was finally delivered at 6 p.m.

Weather or Not

Let me start off by saying that I have a wonderful son! When we left Ned's yesterday, I left behind my stainless steel coffee cup. The cup I use every day. The cup which keeps my coffee hot, because I hate lukewarm coffee. I immediately called Ned and asked him to bring it when he came later to help Walt with moving the furniture.

But when he showed up, he said he had put the cup out to bring and then forgot it. This morning I had to use a plastic cup, which wasn't nearly the same. It didn't have the right "mouth feel" and it didn't keep the coffee warm as long.

We took the puppies up to Petco, which is right near Peet's and I very nearly went to Peet's to get a new cup, because who knew when I'd see Ned again. But it was just too hot to walk all that way to get a coffee cup, so I didn't. I would do it later in the week, I thought.

Mid-afternoon, someone knocked on the door. Lo and behold it was Ned and Marta, who were having dinner in Davis and made sure to bring my coffee cup, because they knew I would be missing it.

I love Ned. I love Marta. I love my coffee cup!

But while I'm complaining about the weather, here's a cool (get it?) weather meme...

1. what is the best memory you have of a day that was absolutely freezing and cold?

Well, when you grow up in San Francisco, you don't exactly have "freezing" weather. So the closest I've ever come to "freezing" was the rare winter trips we took to Lake Tahoe. Watching the kids making snowmen outside Walt's mother's condo was always fun. Most unusual memory, though, was the time we arrived at midnight, unloaded all the kids and headed them to the cabin and bed and then realized that we were missing Tom. A search of the house and no Tom. Walt checked outside and apparently instead of walking into the house, Tom had headed to the first snowbank and fell asleep on it.

2. what is your best memory of a rainy day you have spent in your life?

I don't know how old I was, but either grammar school or high school age, and I really don't have a clue why this is always the memory I think of when I think about rain, but it's a very simple memory of sitting in the window of our flat on a steep hill in San Francisco, and watching the rain pouring down and cascading down the hill. Watching people struggle to walk up the hill against the rain. Watching cars try to drive up and stop at the stop sign at the top of the hill. It was better than television.

3. what is your best memory of a day where it was blistering hot?

Again, it's an oddball memory, but I was about 13 years old and spend two weeks with Peach and her family in Citrus Heights, which is about 30 miles from here. It was 113 degrees out and we had walked to the "little store" where we used to get snacks. We were coming back and the air was very still, mirages of pools of water on the road ahead of us. I had my hair in a pony tail and Peach was standing behind me braiding the pony tail. I remember thinking at the time "I will always remember this moment" -- and I do.

4. what is the weirdest weather phenomenon you can remember experiencing anywhere?

Does an eclipse count? Very weirdest thing I've ever experienced was a full eclipse of the sun. I stood outside when the thing was completely full and marveled at how nothing looked "normal." There was an other-worldly look to everything for those few minutes until the moon started moving away from the sun again. I've never experienced anything like it before or since.

5. what type of weather can you NOT stand?

Second to the top would be hot weather. Top would be hot humid weather. The only thing that makes Sacramento Valley summers palatable (other than air conditioning -- when it works) is that it is a dry heat. I'd rather experience 100 degrees in Davis than 80 in San Francisco, for that reason.

6. the opposite of question 5... what is the best type of weather for you?

I'm a San Francisco girl. I love fog. But once in a while a crystal clear sunny (and cool) days is nice too. I also love being in heavy rain. I love listening to it on the windows or on the roof. I don't even mind being out in it running errands, as long as I don't have too many errands to run.

7. have you visited a place that has the ideal climate for you, and would you move there at any time in your life?

From all I hear of my friends in the Seattle area they can't stand the grey, the rain, the cold. Wikipedia says that there is an average of 37.1 inches per year. I keep saying I don't believe them because every time I've been there, it's been gorgeous. But I suspect that I could tolerate the Seattle area weather very well.

Things Are Looking Up

Things actually started looking up around 8 p.m. last night when I realized that the temperature outside was cooler than the temperature inside, which meant I could open the back door and cool down the house.

That meant that I could actually sleep under a puppy and not feel like I was having a night-long hot flash. I almost didn't mind being awakened by Lizzie's barking at 5:30, because I'd had an almost full, comfortable night of sleep.

While I was up locking the dog door, I decided to check e-mail and that's when I discovered that the computer was off. I did not turn the computer off. What's more, it wouldn't come on. Great. Now the computer's broken, I thought. I checked everything. No puppy had gnawed on the power cord, all the cords were plugged in. All the surge protectors were plugged in and did not appear to have been peed on. The computer just. wouldn't. come. on.

I sighed, fully awake now. It was time to call my guru again and to set up the laptop so I could use that instead. This required cleaning off the desk (of course). About the time I got the desk all cleaned off and was headed out to get the laptop from its new wheeled carrier, I had this sudden thought -- was the switch on the wall in the "on" position? I checked. It was not.

I don't know how that switch gets turned off. Walt swears he doesn't do it and I swear I don't do it, but very clearly I had done it last night. The switch powers only one thing: the electrical outlet that the computer is plugged into. How I managed to turn it off is beyond me. But it was lovely to turn it on and see the computer fire up right away.

What's even better, the lovely local TV weather person was predicting temperatures "in the 90s" in Sacramento today, which is about a 10 degree drop in temperature from the past two days. The house had a fighting chance to stay "reasonable" until the air conditioner repair guy got here.

The a/c guy arrived 3 hours ahead of schedule and determined that the problem was a blown circuit breaker. It took all of 10 seconds to fix and cost $58. Now I feel like a real dummy for not checking that to begin with. But at least I'm a cooler dummy, so I won't waste valuable energy getting angry with myself. And he said that they had about 90 calls in the last few days which turned out to be exactly the same problem, so if I'm a dummy, at least I'm in good company, I guess.

Nothing is all bad, however, I happened to catch a promo saying that the new season of Mad Men was starting July 27th on AMC and that in preparation, there would be a marathon the previous week, or you could catch all the episodes on Comcast On Demand.

Since it was such an effort to move, causing much sweat, I kind of took the better part of two days off and watched the entire first season of MadMen, all 13 episodes.

This was a show I never heard much about when it was in its regular season. Now that AMC has become a regular commercial station and you can catch good old movies on TMC without comercial interruptions, I've stoped watching it...I used to be glued to it when we first got cable.

So anyway, I had never seen Mad Men, though I think I remember Steve telling me that it was excellent. And, in fact, it won a couple of awards during award season (Golden Globes for best new series and best actor for John Hamm as Don Draper.

Lemme tell you, if you're looking for a new good drama that doesn't involve car chases, murders, or gory autopsies, this is the show for you. It recreates the 1960s world of the Madison Avenue advertising agencies and you'll find yourself laughing at the old fashioned view of women, the office romances, the constant drinking, and especially the smoking. My god...I think one of the requirements for this show must be to sign a waiver holding the production company not responsible for any adverse health effects. Everybody smokes. All the time. They smoke during meals. They smoke at work. They smoke in restaurants. They smoke in cars. They smoke during sex (yes, during), they smoke at doctor's appointments. The women smoke while cooking. Pregnant women smoke. They smoke while taking care of the baby. You could get lung cancer just watching the show.

But if you can get past that, this is a well-written, well-crafted, crisp-looking series that I highly recommend. I will be watching when the new season starts, because I'm already hooked.

If you decide to try it out and it bugs you, as it did me, where you've seen the new secretary, Peggy Olson, before--she is actress Elisabeth Moss, who played President Jed Bartlett's daughter in the much-missed West Wing. And the white haired boss, Roger Stirling, was Gabi's short-lived politician husband, actor John Slattery, on Desperate Housewives. Also, if you old timers want to feel old, the old guy who runs the agency is actor Robert Morse, the young guy in the original (1961) How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (apparently, he did...succeed!)

Melting...Melting

First, in response to my entry yesterday on "cutting the budget," my friend Pat sent me the following:

I was walking down the street when I was accosted by a particularly dirty and shabby-looking homeless woman who asked me for a couple of dollars for dinner.

I took out my wallet, got out ten dollars and asked, 'If I give you this money, will you buy wine with it instead of dinner?'

'No, I had to stop drinking years ago', the homeless woman told me.

'Will you use it to go shopping instead of buying food?' I asked.

'No, I don't waste time shopping,' the homeless woman said. 'I need to spend all my time trying to stay alive.'

'Will you spend this on a beauty salon instead of food?' I asked.

'Are you NUTS!' replied the homeless woman. I haven't had my hair done in 20 years!'

'Well, I said, 'I'm not going to give you the money. Instead, I'm going to take you out for dinner with my husband and me tonight.'

The homeless Woman was shocked. 'Won't your husband be furious with you for doing that? I know I'm dirty, and I probably smell pretty disgusting.'

I said, 'That's okay. It's important for him to see what a woman looks like after she has given up shopping, hair appointments, and wine.'

Maybe I should re-think this "budget cutting" stuff!!!

So. It's hot here. It was 108 yesterday, 105 today. As I noted in my video of the day yesterday, I wondered why I was so sweaty when the air conditioner was running and I had even closed the back door, locking the puppies in, but keeping the cool air in.

That's when I discovered that the air conditioner wasn't running. The temp in the house was hovering around 90. No wonder I felt so enervated. I was feeling guilty for being just too hot to walk on the treadmill. Well...duhhh...it was 90 here. It was too late to call the heating and air company. I got my new little fan (thank you, thank you, Olivia!) and just sat with that fan and a big fan I brought down from upstairs. Things were fine as along as I didn't move.

How hot was it? (I miss Johnny Carson). It was so hot that I didn't feel like eating. That, my friends, was some freaking miracle.

While all the dogs seemed affected by the heat, and none of them wanted to do anything but sleep (Sheila staked out a spot directly in front of the fan; Lizzie chose a cool spot on the bare floor, rather than her usually preferred couch).

The puppies had to be in body contact with me. I was practically spread-eagle at my desk, trying to keep them from sleeping on my feet, but they would stretch and stretch and stretch until they were able to touch my feet.

I couldn't stand it and finally gave up and moved to the cooler family room (cooler, thanks to 3 fans).

I really didn't think I would sleep last night at all, but I kept shooing the puppies off of me and they finally got the message and slept on the dog beds. I had the big fan blowing in one direction, the rotating fan blowing in another, and the personal fan on the table next to me. And I did fall asleep, sleeping almost all night long.

This morning, first thing, I called the heating and air company. They could check things out today, but not before noon -- and I had to tell them to come tomorrow instead because Char was coming and we were going to lunch at her cousin's house, and I don't know if I would be home when they showed up.

Lunch was lovely--and the chance to spend 2-1/2 hours in an air conditioned environment was wonderful.

All the fans were going when I got home, and the house was at 90. As I type here, my fingers are sweaty and sweat is pouring down my face, even though I have two fans pointed at me.

The a/c people will be here tomorrow ("but not before noon," was cautioned). Let's just hope they can get something going and that this isn't just the first visit to set up some later more extensive repair.

Fiat Lux

My eyes popped open at 1:04 a.m. There was a bright light shining in the kitchen and street lights shining in my eyes.

The power was back on!!!!!

After more than 40 hours without power, the electricity was once again on.

I was very disappointed when I woke up yesterday morning and discovered the power still off. I had such high hopes after our dinner at Noodle City...

...and my session at Mishka's Cafe, writing a journal entry...

...that we would get up on Saturday morning and there would be power. But no. At least we had purchased ground French Roast coffee at Mishka's and I could heat water on top of the stove and use my French press to make coffee.

I even washed my hair. I discovered we still had some warm water, so wet and lathered my hair in the sink using the warm water, rinsed it first with cold water and then with water I had warmed on the stove. I was coping.

Jeri and Phil (who had wisely spent the night at Ned & Marta's) , kept sending text messages -- "power?" and I would just scoff. I spent the afternoon reading and napping, when the skies were too dark to read.

Finally Jeri & Phil came, packed their stuff into our car, and we drove them to Oakland to the airport, stopping en route for dinner at a food mart.

(Lamb curry for us, noodle soup for them)

That killed a couple of hours, but it was disheartening to return home at 10:30 and discover the power still out. We had been listening to the radio and hearing that some places might not have power until the middle of next week.

It was too late to go to Mishka's, which closed at 11 p.m., so I decided I would run down there first thing in the morning and get an entry posted. It was very cold in the house, so I bundled up in my heavy coat, socks, and an extra blanket and went to sleep, until the lights came on at 1:04. The blackout is over.

The experience gave me a whole new appreciation for people like Katrina victims, trapped in homes throughout the night, cut off from all information (the information blackout was the worst, I think, until Walt found the battery-operated radio), water rising, not knowing when (or if) anybody was going to come for help or, like Susan wrote in her comment on yesterday's entry the months (years?) of dealing with problems following the initial crisis.

Or, as Jeri pointed out to me this evening, I didn't have to deal with trying to save children from bullets or wondering when soldiers were going to break down my door. I just had to worry about whether there was going to be an empty chair at Mishka's.

As emergencies go, this was pretty minor. It was an inconvenience not to have power and a worry that it was going to continue long enough to cause food to begin spoiling and that sort of thing, but all in all, 40 hrs without power is definitely just a raspberry seed in the wisdom tooth of life.

But I'm glad it's over!