The Time Sink

Well, we all survived Christmas. ...and the weather. Yeah, we had some serious rain out this way starting Christmas afternoon. ...and it was ninety miles home in that downpour! ...only to have the rain slacken as we pulled into town. Sheesh

...but that only held for an hour or so: by ten it was raining and by 0300 or so we were awakened by a lightning storm that killed power to the house (yep, that would be several nights of interrupted sleep cycles). The good news is I had the day off today and could sleep in a bit. I'll head into work tomorrow to handle a few things, but the plan after that is to take some days off to relax with the family. ...and it will be an enforced relaxation if the rains come back!

I'll have pics up from my sister's place (always an interesting place for a photographer to visit) and from other Christmas venues in the next day or so. Brad and I took quite a few shots while we were visiting and we'll share them here and there as best we can.

As a bit of an explanation for some of the pics up this week: whenever we visit my sister's place Brad and I have what would be called a 'target rich' environment; the lady collects a bit of everything and displays different items year round to match the seasons. Her Christmas decorations include ornaments atop old yarn spools, a Crèche that simply has to be seen to be believed, and cats and dogs (the living kind) with fancy collars on (handy when Oscar the Grouch is around; that cat would just as soon chomp you as look at you).

...and then there's Tiffany. Bikini clad or in a grass skirt during the Summer months, at Christmas she changes into very festive attire (she had bells on this year).A bit disconcerting at times, but after a while you take her in stride...

The best laid plans... Last night we had company over (covering child care turned into an impromptu dinner and dessert thing) and since we were awake and functional when they left we decided to run Shelley's van over to the dealer instead of having to get up early to take it in for its routine service. Cool! "Sleeping in" being one of the things I'd like to get accomplished while I'm off the balance of the week (yeah!). Things went well and we made plans to pick her car up when it was finished today and drop mine off at its dealer so we could try sleeping in again instead of hauling cars about in the early morning fog or rain...

So what happens this morning? The phone rings at 0730; it's the service manager calling to present his estimate for the work! Arrgghh!!!! Daniel brought me the phone and I padded down the hall with it so as not to wake Shelley up. I told the rep it was okay to proceed, but the best part was when he figured out he'd woken me up: from then on he whispered his end of the conversation to me.

Who me? Let's see... Slept in, bladed, saw Narnia with the family (very cool), napped, photo walked in the evening (cold, cold, cold) did Algebra homework with Daniel...

...and today? Lunch for the family at a teppanyaki place, a first for the boys. ...and then later in the evening just kickin' back watching a Queen DVD (thanks, Donna!) with Brad as he picked up tips on drumming.

Well, I guess that best that could be said for the day was losing power for several hours and not having to watch the last portion of the game; the team did the same meltdown routine they've done ever since losing to USC. Yeah, I did give up and call Sheila and Bill and have them give me the bad news. Then I took a walk...

Yep, the storm that is flooding northern CaliLand came into central Cal overnight and absolutely poured water at times early today. ...and then the winds hit and blew trees over. The next round is due to hit Sunday evening (at least that's the latest prediction).

So I slept in for a longish while and got up figuring I'd go blade before marshalling the troops to take down the lights. ...but the overcast skies 'felt' like rain so I took a look at the radar:

Click image for larger version

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke, "Technology and the Future"

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