It Was A Dark And Stormy Night
5:24 p.m. - 2002-12-15


We left two hours early to get to the airport to pick up the youngest daughter, who was flying alone for the first time in her life. Naturally it had to be in one of the worst storms in a long time. Annie, the neighbor lady, who lives in back of Mrs. Barnes' house, told me that she has lived here for 50 years and that this is the worst she has seen. The rain blew horizontally! Ok, I am done with the California Weather Whine.

We barely made it in time, the traffic was so bad, and there were portions of the freeway with standing water. There was no time to stop for my snack, it being dinner time (I do not do well when deprived of regular mealtimes), but on the upside, we managed to enter the infamously horrible San Francisco airport, which seems to have completed at least some of the never-ending construction, and found the world's best parking space, three steps from the door to Delta. Now the baby girl is home again, and raring to cook. We made some grocery shopping trips and stocked up on baking supplies, so she can do her regular Christmas baking.

I am glad to report that at long last I started the Christmas shopping and only have one to go, not counting his. I love gift certificates. I even found the one toy I get to buy this year, for the Bean. Now I feel like a load is lifted from my Christmas spirit. Ooo, I hear the wind beginning to howl again, so they must be right about El Nino, may it go away and not return for 50 years, makes me think fondly back to the big bad drought years. A tree went down in Mrs. Barnes' yard so now we have to get an estimate from the tree guy and call Vervie about it in Texas. It was completely uprooted, but missed anything important. Thank goodness we had our monster tree taken down in the nick of time.