New Growth

Not exactly a flower, but the new growth on the rhododendron next to the Brush Creek trail was eye catching. It is still quite early for such things, but I've seen magnolias in full bloom and daffodils that look like they will be blooming any day now. After last month's dreadful weather, this month has been cold at night but relatively warm during the day and nary a drop of rain in a month that usually has a lot. So while the rest of the country (and the world) suffers from extreme cold and high wind, and the southern half of our state is burning down, Mother Nature here thinks it's spring.

We were up early to pick up son Matthew, flying up for a quick visit. We picked him up after some phone drama and still got to Trail House before anybody else. I clearly remembered putting on my jacket specifically so I would have a pocket for the phone, but when I looked for it to let Matt know we were there, it was nowhere to be found. I continued to ransack the car, while John went in to find Matt (who had texted that he was inside because it was COLD outside). It's not a big airport so he was found without any trouble. Unlike the phone.

 Dana arrived after we had been at Trail House for a few minutes, and once she heard that the phone was missing, she said it had to be in the car, because she had tracked us to Trail House. I went back out to the car and Gail called my phone which revealed itself to be in the side pocket of the door which I had searched carefully at least four times. Not carefully enough, it seems. Thanks, Dana. I don't know why we didn't hear Matt's text from the terminal.

My very brief perusal of the newspaper revealed that Congress approved $2.4 Billion for LA fire relief, and the Felon says he won't sign it unless we change the state water management plan and divert more water to LA. This, despite the fact that several fire management sources have said that LA has plenty of  water which isn't always that helpful in wind driven fires of this magnitude anyway.  

The man doesn't know what he's talking about and doesn't care. He just wants to look like he is In Charge and Getting Things Done. And he doesn't like California because we don't like him....