RAIN???

You've probably heard about the monster storm that started off the coast of California and is moving steadily east. It's been in our forecasts for the last week or so, and they kept saying that it was a warm storm and would be mostly rain, resulting in our having a "brown" Christmas.

Well, here are today's pictures of our "rain." We're told there's more to come. Will it also be "white?"

New Tenant

Shock of shocks, I'm actually blogging after almost a full year. Well, I hope it's worth it--we'll see.

A new tenant has moved in at my house, uninvited. In fact, if this tenant had actually moved in inside the house, it would have been evicted forthwith. As it is, I can't really get at it, so I just watch it, cringing all the while.

If you look really carefully in this first picture right up against the eaves, you can see a little light brown spot that looks kind of like a leaf. Maybe you can see it better in the other picture. That is my new tenant spider. The web is right up off the eaves of the house on the patio and I guess attached to the shed at the bottom. (NOTE: If you click on the picture, it's much easier to see.)

Maybe he's easier to see in this next picture. Anyway, you can see the web. I was watching the other afternoon while I was on the phone, and saw the spider come down on it's web and gobble up something that had gotten caught.

Anyway, I'm assuming it will be gone before too much longer as we have a cold front coming through this week that will significantly drop temperatures. I'm just glad it's outside and out of reach.

REHAB

I've had some kind of funny experiences while I've been in this rehab center recovering from my knee replacement surgery, and I thought I would share a few that I can remember.

First, a little about this place. It is primarily a Medicare center, which should tell you something about the clientele, and contrary to what some of you may think, I'm not yet in that category. Most of the workers here are not used to someone who, though having had surgery recently, is able to stand up and move about fairly easily and be mostly self-sufficient. So there have been a couple of funny "compliments" from some of the younger workers:

I can't remember exactly what I was getting help with--I think this girl was just bringing me some medication or something, and she said, "You don't look old enough to have had knee replacement surgery." I told her that was the nicest thing anyone had said to me all day--or maybe all week!!

The really funny one was another young girl who was helping me dry off after my shower. She was drying my feet, and she said, "You have really nice toenails!" I replied something to the effect that it was the remnants of a pedicure that I had received several months ago, and she said no, it wasn't that. Most of the people here have really thick, deformed toenails etc., and mine were different.

I'm probably headed there, but at least I still have some semblance of youth--I have nice toenails.