TheMommyBlog

Saturday, January 05, 2008 Me, Me, Me

Okay, maybe just my boyfriend standing in our doorway, snapping photos of me raking the leaves out of the gutter in front of my house. It had to be done.

There have been storms this weekend—the likes of which we haven’t seen in these parts in years—with gusts of wind of up to 45 MPH and leaving behind 2-4 inches of rain. I know, we’re pansies. But work with me, here. It’s a lot for someone who was outside watering the potted tree to keep it from dying in the (so far) drought.

Today was not so bad; the rains were relatively gentle and the winds were down so that i could face either way to make sure I didn’t get run over while clearing the leaves out of the streets.

I called my parents in Tuscany where they were on vacation to warn them of the storms about to hit and asked if, say, any windows needed closing. This is what I received in reply:

Thank you for the tele message. We are in Tuscany, eating and drinking excessively, and expect to return to CA Sat nite. We have no idea how the house is but it was solid when we left. We appreciate your willingness to check it out. Please do so. Be sure that the roof remains impervious to wind and the walls impenetrable by rain and the home psyche inviolable by all…

Okaaaay.

So I replied:

Heh. You should have seen me just now - forty minutes in the rain and wind raking leaves out of the gutters for half a block on either corner. I figured I could rake my neighbors’ leaves in front of their houses, or I could rake them out of my storm drain. There was a ten-foot wide and four-inch deep moat in the street! Once I got it cleared, the surf conditions were most excellent.

It was a little bizarre peeling off wet things and putting my boots in front of the fire to dry. In San Jose. On three separate occasions.

Storm number two has passed and we are bracing for number three. But nothing can dampen my spirits; I’m still flying high on the news from Friday. I can’t wait to see my folks, hear about their adventure, and then pick my children up from school on Monday.

A return to normalcy.