Aperitivo

The weather has cooled down considerably here, although the southern half of the state is still on fire. My brother met a friend at Stone Brewery in Escondido for lunch, until the restaurant was evacuated in the middle of their meal. We fared much better here, with a lovely lunch at VJB, a winery and tasting room with a wonderful deli and a pizza oven. They issued us with our own bottle, which we have filled with their Sngiovese for a very reasonable price when we remember to bring it.

We felt we deserved it now that life at 885 seems to have settled down again to, as my mother used to put it, "a dull roar". OilMan's hand is fixed, and pain free, although swollen and splinted for two weeks. Now he admits to a "stiff" wrist.

The plumbing is working, and with our own well, we are unlikely to run out of water. The specter of rationing looms in the face of the ongoing drought, and although it won't apply to us, we try to do our part.

Although they never strung a new cable, our own personal Comcast guy seems to have fixed the problem, although we are still totally unclear about what the problem is. He said he detected a "voltage buildup" in the snarl of wires behind our home entertainment system, which is all but incomprehensible to us. Our friend, who worked for Pacific Gas and Electric for 35 years says you either have voltage or no voltage. He had never heard of a "voltage build up".

Wildfire regulations require us to mow the field of dreams, and we avoid the other field, which is one of our favorite walks in the winter, now that it is dry and full of foxtails where it hasn't been plowed. Instead, we take Ozzie to the creek, a lake, the beach or the Russian River for a swim. In a couple of weeks, the swimming lagoon will open to dogs for two days before opening to people for the summer--a much anticipated event among dog lovers.

OilMan is outside stalking our resident wild turkey with his camera.