Rain

On Friday we had the first actual rainfall since we moved here. I awoke at about 5:30 am to the now-unfamiliar sound of rain beating down. There were several showers that day. I heard on the radio that LA received it's first rain in 150 days; for the island it may have been longer.

If you've ever wondered how quickly dust turns to mud, I am now an expert. The water soaks into the first inch or so of dust before it starts to run off. That top layer turns into a clay-like substance, which sticks to any tire- or shoe-like substance that it touches. Lugged soles or tires are pretty much worthless after about 20 seconds; after that you have slick mud caked on what is supposed to be giving you traction. I heard that we got about 1/2 inch of rain that day. It seemed like more than that to me, especially as I was shifting the truck into 4-wheel drive for the trip over to the lab.

Amusing aside: I used to laugh at the Marylanders when school would be canceled when 1/4 inch of snow fell. Sometimes they'd cancel school on the threat of snow. Well, on Friday they canceled a field trip from the LRS to Avalon on the THREAT of RAIN! Granted the rain did actually appear, and I wouldn't have wanted them to go on the slick roads, but still I found it funny.

So things appear greener here right now, although I can't tell if that's because things are growing or just that the dust has been washed off.


Speaking of dust, here is a picture of the back of our truck prior to the rain, just to show you how dusty things get around here. It seems like we'd do better to have windshield brushes rather than wipers.

One last note: We got our satellite TV hooked up. A nice man (who apparently spent 20 years as a professional break-dancer) came out on the ferry and was able to set up our satellite dish in between the morning and afternoon rain showers on Friday. I watched several football games (Go Trojans!), one futbol game (Spanish league!), and two soccer games (Man City v Fulham, and the unfortunate ManU/Chelsea affair) over the weekend, and tonight I even got to watch the Daily Show for the first time since July! One benefit to West Coast living is that the Daily Show is on at 10pm, leaving you an hour to blog. (It's also on at 8pm, but the kids are still running around at that point.) I guess I have mixed feelings about it, but the mix is heavily on the 'thank goodness' side.

Summer Ends / Autumn Begins

School has begun. It seems late, but then maybe that's because southern California doesn't have to build in snow days, so they can start later and save on air conditioning bills (not that that's a concern out here on the island).

We had a clean-up day at the Little Red Schoolhouse (LRS) a week ago to pick up trash, fix up gardens, and generally spruce up the place. The building was just painted, too. It turns out this is the 20th anniversary of the LRS, so they're doing an extra special sprucing up this year. We also had a Welcome cook-out for the new teacher (we'll call her Ms Frizzle in honor of the Magic Schoolbus series). She seems very nice and very together. She has 20 years experience and knows the island and its issues. There is a great sense of community amongst the school parents and the various people who volunteer their time at the school (there's a couple who comes to teach music, and another who donates school supplies each year, for instance). It was nice to meet all of them while the kids played together.

The first week (well, three days) of school went pretty well. The first day, Ms Frizzle had the kids gather on the steps in front of all the parents and sing a special LRS song. Then the bell was rung (yes, there's a bell in the little bell house on top!) and in the kids went. Thing1 didn't exactly stay out of trouble, but we haven't received a note home yet. Most of this first week seems to be Ms Frizzle trying to figure out what the kids know so she can plan curriculum for the kids. After school, many of the kids go to a house across the courtyard for after-care, so Thing1 plays with them (after doing his homework, of course). Thing2 is spending his days at home with Sweetie, and has been very excited to see Thing1 when he gets home.

Another sure sign of autumn is the decreased activity in the harbor. Which means a slowing down of the tourist activity in town, which means, well, here's an example. Last week (Labor Day weekend) we decided to get a pizza for dinner from the snack bar on Friday night. So I wandered down and (eventually) got one and we enjoyed it, so we thought we'd try that again this week. I walked down to the snack bar at 5:30 to find it closed. Hrm. I looked around for a sign showing their current hours, only to be disappointed. Hrm. Life in a small tourist town. Looks like it's frozen pizzas until Memorial Day.

We now have a planned date for moving our stuff. I'm not exactly sure when it will arrive here, but we know when it will leave Maryland. The house still hasn't sold, but we occasionally have second showings, so maybe someday soon.