A Rainy Day

The atmospheric river changed its course somewhere over the Pacific and was a mere trickle by the time it reached our shores It has been a steady enough rain that we haven't been outside all day. The Christmas gnomes have come out of the closet to enjoy a seat by the fire.

We had a pleasant gathering with some of the neighbors to say good-bye to Rob and Jim who have lived in the house across the street from us since they moved here in 1989.  We wound up sitting in a circle telling stories. We talked about living in Edinburgh when central heating wasn't even a concept. Ann , who is from South Africa,  talked about living in London where she had to feed the geyser to get hot water for a bath and  June, talked about coming from Japan to attend college in San Jose where she met her husband Bill. We talked about being bilingual, gossiped about various absent neighbors and Cindy and Bruce talked about how they will probably have to pay to have the logjam in the creek removed.

The fire resulting from the Loma Prieta earthquake in October, 1989 destroyed the building in the San Francisco Marina district where Rob and Jim were living at the time, when they moved to Santa Rosa.  Things seem to have come full circle for them as they are now moving back to the Marina to a flat just a block away from where they lived before.  As they explain it, We are in the process of moving to San Francisco. We know this will be a big surprise for most everyone, but we made the decision because of the wildfires that have directly impacted us. We were extremely lucky last year with three of our neighbors' homes burning. It is time for a change...

A change, yet not a change. 

Dinner with Jim and Dana tonight. He has become quite the chef. We're going to take our stash of goodies from Eataly to share before our coq au vin.