I've Seen Sunny Days That I Thought Would Never End

Bill writes: After 417 straight days of rain (after which Noah would have said, "Screw this, I'm moving to Reno), there was finally a break in the weather on Monday. Since Aline has to report to work Wednesday, I let her pick where we should go (sort of like the condemned's last meal). So we climbed down off the roof, loaded up the Beetle, and headed down to Capitola. Now this is how California is supposed to look.



After a few hours of laying face up on the beach, we needed a change, so we drove down to Santa Cruz to lay face down on the beach, and then tried our luck at not losing lunch on the Giant Dipper.



Today, the weather was equally nice. We had to bring Grommet up to RadioCat in San Mateo for his radioactive iodine treatment and three days of isolation until his litterbox stops glowing.

After dropping him off at the kitty linear accelerator, we crossed over into Half Moon Bay for another lunch picnic at another beach and to put the finishing touches on my Mister Lobsterface(R) sunburn. (I didn't have much use for sunscreen the past year, and sorta kinda forgot one's face turns into cheddar cheese sandwich filling in the California sunshine.) Everyone was out, including horses big.



And horses small.



We had the requisite wonderful California beach time, and six hours later wended ("wendt?") our weary way home.

Weather or Not We'll Stay

Bill writes: Apparently, we've returned to the wrong country. I could have sworn we had bought two tickets for San Francisco, but somehow they've dumped us into a newly cleared rainforest in South America. That would explain the combination of spanish-named streets like the El Camino, coupled with 34 inches of rain per day.

Here is a picture from our last day in England--you know, the place where it's supposed to rain a lot.



Let me direct your attention first to the cloudless blue sky, and then to the gentleman on the right wearing shorts due to the warm, sunny day.

Here is a picture from our front doorstep today (the furthest it was safe to travel without a personal floatation device).



You can just make out the houseboat beyond the bend in the river that used to be our street. There are no people. That's because they're either hidden behind sandbags or they've already sailed away.

Can someone explain how it is we're gone for a year and a new ice age has begun?

All I know is that someone better pony up with the right California weather damn fast or we're headed back to sunny old England.

Grommet Comes Clean

Bill writes: Since Earthlink still still doesn't have our internet working, this is just a quickie post using a neighbor's access. And since the email we have gotten has mostly been asking about Grommet, this is about him. (He gets most of the fan mail anyways.)

He's doing fine, saw the vet today, got x-rayed and tested, and looks good for getting his kitty treatment in two weeks. For those of you who asked, he's adjusted to California just fine. He quickly recognized all his favorite spots and settled right in.

Good Grommet:



No-so-good Grommet:



Since he'd already had to see the vet today, I didn't have the heart to put him on Spin cycle.