Dear Family, Friends, and Diary,
Weather. In normal Fresno times, there's not much to talk about. Hot summers. Almost-perfect fall and spring. Mild and damp winters. Every year.
Except this year we get to talk about rain and snow. A lot. The Sierra snows are at 200% of average, over 600 inches (50 feet!) in many high elevations. Water reservoirs that were at record lows in October are now approaching full, with years-worth of water supply. Our eastern horizon is spectacular. (click to expand and see all the snowy peaks and green foothills.)
Around home, the house looks good and neighbor Clay's giant pine still stands. (With all the wind and rain, we have had our doubts.) Flowers are sprouting. They like this wet stuff.
Last Sunday, we went out to see if we could find flooding. Below Pine Flat Dam, the Kings River was a real river, not the stream it was last fall. Homes and orchards of the surrounding East Fresno residents and farmers had clearly received a bit more water than they had prayed for. But, nothing we found was dangerous or particularly destructive.
Otherwise, it's all normal retired life. Neighbor Geri brought over a pair of small puzzles, small but not so easy.
Marianne has her regular series of art activities; painting, practicing, studying, and Zoom-ing with colleagues. (No photos. I need to remember.)
Speaking of Zoom, we also enjoyed our monthly gathering of cousins: Tim in Lisbon and Tom, Kathleen, and Maryetta in Boise. I'm not sure we solved any world problems, but we tried.
So, this was a diary of our calm life. It took me ten days to prepare, mostly because this quiet is as uninspiring as it can be. (I suppose I could have added bits and pieces about bank failures, war, disease, electric cars, etc., but I'll have to leave those for in-person discussion.
Our future events include having our heating and air-conditioning system replaced ($ouch) and then turning it off and heading out for a month-long drive. I sure hope that is more exciting than talking about weather.
Stay tuned, John and Marianne