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!