Saturday, September 22, 2007

Rain! and the Wheel turns again

It's 57 degrees and drizzling (with puddles on the ground and sidewalks), and tomorrow is the first day of fall! A wonderful way to welcome this change of seasons.

Actually, we'll be back in late summer this coming week with temps near 90 -- but for now, the long sleeves and long pants feel good, and I'm looking forward to a cozy evening of movies and hot stew and biscuits dripping with butter and honey. I like cool weather.

Neighborhood update: the *new* board members sent out minutes of last week's meeting and a dues increase ballot revised from one that passed a month ago because the wording wasn't accurate, apparently. I have questions: the measure upon which we're voting passed a month ago. While this one is being taken to correct the wording, what happens if it doesn't pass? (I suspect this one is the only binding one...) And the minutes were inaccurate: they do not report a measure that was passed (voted on at the meeting), recording it there merely as a "recommendation."

Of course I have other issues with the minutes, but mostly because they don't reflect the true nature of the meeting. I suspect I'm not alone in that. The plot thickens.

Family: My brother and sister-in-law were here for far too short a time, and we just had a wonderful visit. I took them downtown to visit a couple of shops, we ate lunch at the new Thai House that's recently changed ownership (wonderful food!), and then drove up to Lassen.

I love love love the smell of the pines in the high elevations, and the sky was bright blue. Temperatures were moderate -- we did not need the jackets we'd taken -- and while it was hazy when you looked out across the mountains, it was beautiful up there. Lassen had gotten some snow the other day, although it remained mostly in small patches, but it was clean and white, and I'll betcha they got a bunch more today.

The one disappointment is that the boardwalk at the Sulphurworks has been dismantled, so you can't see the bubbling hot springs and mud holes. The two big ones by the road were busily churning, one so audibly that it sounded like a big washing machine, but they weren't spitting yesterday, just steaming. Both of them really enjoyed seeing "things we haven't seen before," as Jimmy put it, and then we wound up at the Sundial Bridge.

They left this morning for business in the Bay Area, after we enjoyed our ritual family wild-rice-and-bacon-and-Jule-Kage breakfast, and I got a little teary. I am very grateful to have such a great relationship with my brother and sister-in-law -- it is good to have family who loves you, warts and all.

Blessed equinox to you as we enter the dark months. The wheel turns...day and night are equal briefly....and we reap what we have sown over the year during this season. It is the great harvest time, this change. May yours be bountiful to last you through the coming winter.

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