Night Surprise

There were no more alligator clouds yesterday, but plenty of conventional cirrus, which came and went all day and all night. For a while, about midnight, a mass of cloud glowed pale in the west while the summer stars sparkled overhead. The air felt cooler, but then it clouded up again and the darkness again became still and stultifying. A few minutes ago I heard a faint noise in the bushes outside my window. It was barely discernable over the hum of the fans, but I thought that a deer might be browsing. I peered out into the night and could smell the unmistakable odor of hot, damp pavement. It was raining! It wasn't much of a rain- just enough to wet the ground and rinse the dust from the leaves- but I enjoyed it, and even went out and got wet in it. So far, there has been no electrical activity, but I can hope. For the moment, the air feels a bit less muggy, and it certainly smells fresher. And I didn't even have to slice out anyone's heart! Thanks, Tlaloc.

( Sunday Verse )

Long Way from Home

I saw two seagulls swooping over the parking lot at Albertson's this afternoon. It was a sight appropriate to the feeling in the air. The heat and damp reminded me of the atmosphere a mile or so inland from the beaches of Los Angeles on a summer day. On the way to the beach, that last mile was always the most difficult, the close-packed cars crawling toward the last line of hills beyond which the view of the gleaming, heaving, sea-green horizon would open and the cooling sea breezes would dissipate the smell of exhaust fumes, bringing in its place the dank odor of salt and seaweed and fish and the fresh oil which had seeped from the offshore fields and would wash ashore as clumps of tar. I don't think I ever went to a beach in Los Angeles or Orange county from which I did not return with at least a few little smudges of tar on the bottom of my feet. I miss that.

Right now, I'm writing in the client, and Sluggo keeps showing me a blue screen telling me that the current application will be shut down, but it hasn't shut down yet, so I'm bulling through. I doubt I'll be able to post before letting the Slug cool down for an hour or so, though. Whoa, there's the fourth blue screen. Stupid machine.

In actual news (of a sort): California's Democrats need to learn to just let the Governator make an ass of himself, and not issue outraged responses which make them look even sillier than he makes himself look.

I had pizza. I have indigestion. I'm going to eat papaya enzymes and watch television.