Rain

It has been decidedly dry here all winter.  I planned to plant a few more plants in the fall so they would have the winter to be watered by nature.  But what do you know?  Nature hasn't watered us at all.  Well, a couple of sprinklers showed up, separated by lots of blue sky.  So, I haven't planted anything.  Since we are leaving, maybe I won't.  Now that it is March, we finally had a first of the season heavy storm.  It rained almost all day on Thursday and it was wonderful.  Puddles actually appeared in the yard and on the driveway.  A beautiful rainbow filled the sky as well.  I love the rain!  Its presence seems to assure us that, at least for another year, we will be nourished.

Our friends the Crawfords took us out to dinner and a dance performance Thursday night.  Cathy Crawford is a genius at getting free stuff.  She had free certificates for the restaurant and free tickets for the performance.  The whole evening was absolutely free!  The eating was good.  The dance performance was put on by a latin group which promised to have lots of latin rhythms and style.  It turned out to be some latin rhythms and some noise with dancers that were athletic but disjointed and a bit too interpretive for my taste.  Their dancing seemed to reflect a mild hostility between the girls and guys.  My vision of partner dancing is a couple gracefully coming together in a blend of opposite movements that express the union of the sexes in harmony and beauty.  None of that here.  I was disappointed.  We all were.  But the evening in general was fun.  I celebrate such events as we don't experience them very often.  I hope that, with our new commitment to dating, we will have more evenings out.  They are such fun!

Part of the rainbow that followed our storm.

Timothy, the newly baptized boy.

One of the sights on our weekly hikes, in a park close by.

Ben's Jessica, mother of 6 and moving into another home in Palo Alto.
She looks pretty calm for a woman with hugh amounts to do, doesn't she?

I spent time with son Ben and his Jes again, helping organizing their new place.  It was fun to be with them both and to feel like I was genuinely making things better for them.  Son Reed baptized their fourth son on Saturday.  Timmy was baptized amidst lots of family.  It was a lovely time, followed up by a pizza party at Reed and Dorothy's house.  And so our time goes by, with me making too little progress on the various projects I hope to accomplish this year.  Why am I such a starter and not a finisher?  Sometimes I don't understand myself and just feel frustrated with me.