Blue skies (and sleeping bags) all around

It stopped raining!! For today anyway. Yes, houses are sliding off hillsides and the ground is mushy, but I could see the sky today. Last night I woke up startled by the absence of rain pounding on my roof (which I mostly like, but sometimes it's really, really hard which can be scary). I'm pretty sure I brought an end to the storm by finally rescuing my bicycle from two weeks of getting rained on.

Today was Spanish tutoring day. When I arrived the kids' mom had just finished making a yellow cake with homemade chocolate icing. !Que sabrosa! Last week I left with a bottle of Merlot as a belated holiday present. Maybe I'll ask if they'll consider being my godparents and give them a birthday list.

As I was leaving Ralph's (the Randalls of the West) tonight my musings about the delicious fudge pops in my basket were interrupted by the site of an extremely large-haired (large frizzy, not large AquaNet or large Country Club) woman at the entrance. The second thing I noticed was the contents of her shopping basket: an unfolded navy blue sleeping bag, an opened box of candy canes, and a part-full liter of soda. The third thing I noticed were here sandaled feet. From the condition of her toenails, if this woman was homeless, she is newly so or very good about finding and utilizing services. She clearly hadn't had a pedicure at the shop next door in some time, but I do notice these things and I have to say I was impressed. I walk past this woman as she and the security guard are negotiating the propriety of her bringing all those things in the store. The only part I caught had to be the best part of the exchange as I hear her claim, "Well, basically a bottle of Pepsi is what you're looking at here."