June 2006 Archives

Wet carpet in the basement--never a good sign. This is now, officially, the wettest June on record here. We've had torrential rain, flooding, a mudslide, and major commute routes have been closed, including the beltway. Personally, my new back porch is flooded, with water as deep as half an inch in places. *sob* But even worse is the wet carpet in the basement. It's only wet in the lowest spot right now, but it'll spread...oh, it'll spread. Who knows how much will be soaked by the time this rain stops? And the air--we're living in a sauna, I'm not kidding. Walking out of an air conditioned building causes one's glasses to fog over.

My mother is coming tomorrow for a visit. Nice timing, huh? *sigh* The possibly fortunate aspect of this is that perhaps she can walk the dog while she's here, which would mean we wouldn't have to let him out into the back yard while we're at work. Normally letting him run in and out at will through his doggy door is no big deal, but at the moment the back yard resembles a lake.

Oh yeah--I think I forgot to mention--Mike started work today; he's a camp counselor, in charge of 14 first-graders, hehehe. *evil grin*

I feel as though we were vacationing on another planet. Yesterday we awoke to chilly fog along the coast, then drove inland, passing under cloudless blue skies. This morning we seem to have awoken on Venus. The sun is out there somewhere, but who would know? It's pouring rain, and has rained hard while we were away. The new porch is partially flooded. Thunderstorms are predicted for the next week.

I'm sitting in our rented minivan (long story) outside the Gym for Everybody in Guerneville, which is on the Russian River. So, where was I? Unfortunately the Gym for Everybody no longer looks the way it does in the pictures on the website. There was major flooding along the Russian River in 2005 and the carpet was ruined, along with other damage. But the place is still friendly and Mike likes it. So if you happen to find yourself in Guerneville and you think to yourself, hunh, sure would be nice if there were someplace here where I could lift weights, check it out.

So, yesterday we did laundry, right now Mike is working out, I'm getting online--doesn't sound much like a vacation, does it? When I get back home and can upload some pictures from my camera I'll write about the fun stuff we've done and post pics. We've done a lot of wine tasting; this is my attempt to get Mike off Red Bull and vodka. Mike has tasted at seven wineries over four days, and we've noticed a strange thing that has proven to be true 100% of the time: all the women who have poured for Mike (4 of them) have carded him; none of the men who have poured for him (3 of them) have.

I'm working on a theory to explain this. In the book I'm reading now the mother of the main character tells her daughter, when she's looking to lose her virginity, that once she does she'll look at every man she meets as a potential sexual partner. I wonder if all these women look at Mike that way, and think Too Young, and Too Young means Too Young For Everything, in general, and they card him. The men, on the other hand, don't want to card a fellow dude in front of his mom, because that would be way uncool.

More to come.

Mike and I are in a laundromat in Bodega Bay, CA. Oddly, I have an excellent cingular connection here on the laptop. Sure enough, no cell phones work in Jenner, where we're staying. The first night we were here I plugged into the phone line and to read email, but I hate dialup, so I haven't bothered again.

Mike found a little gym in Guerneville (link here) where he can pay to lift weights by the day or by the week, and since I can get online from Guerneville, I sit in the minivan and read email while he works out.

My dryer just stopped--gotta take a break.

It's all real. Turn on the sound. Be amazed.

A week ago Friday I took the day off and pulled various kinds of ivy and vines for about four hours, with Mike's help. I took some pictures before we started. Here's my pic of the English ivy that threatens to take over.

And here, one of the two large oak trees in my front yard. Soon, I'll post a new picture of this tree, and this will be come the "before" picture:

Virginia Creeper:

One of the varieties of wild grape:

Honeysuckle spilling over the fence from next door:

This has now been positively identified as poison ivy by the guy who does tree work for me. It's growing in the english ivy, so it's a bit hard to see in this picture:

It's all over the place. Here's a shot of it climbing a tree. Here too, there are other kinds of vines on the tree, which makes the p.i. a bit hard to see:

Mike and I wore leather gardening gloves and t-shirts, and we both got some of this stuff on our forearms and developed an itchy rash.