The Day After

The day after we have experienced a rain storm, everything here looks so clean. Late this afternoon I was in the side yard with the pooches, letting them stretch their legs and get a little exercise, when I happened to glance beyond the gate across the street to the neighbor's tree. Even though the top half of the tree is dead, the leaves were still beautiful in the late day light.

Locally, it seems as though everyone's main focus is the approaching holiday -- Thanksgiving is this Thursday. At the campus most students are distracted by activities happening in their personal lives . . . the K-12th grade schools in our community have the entire week off, so it is almost counterproductive for the college to not do the same.

At the grocery store there are so many more items for the coming holidays -- Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years -- that it is almost impossible to maneuver the cart through the aisles, plus the increase in the number of shoppers makes the congestion that much worse. The holidays are so much fun, though, that it's worth it.

This has been a good day. I'm looking forward to this week's holiday.
Good night from a very chilly Southern California.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol

P.S. Oh, and the birthday celebrating -- it has not ended! The rain kept us home yesterday and today was so gorgeous that I would have loved to have gone to Orange Hill Restaurant for a delicious meal with a view (it would have also brought a sizable tab), but we chose another method of celebrating. As the sun was about to disappear, Mr. Fun grabbed us each a beverage and told me to get my coat; we sat on our white plastic patio chairs at the far edge of the pool watching the last rays of the day and the reflection on the surface of the pool. It was a celebration of two as we tapped our bottles together, toasted, and soaked the warmed of the autumn sun. Have I mentioned -- I love birthdays and I love celebrating! It's not over yet.