Waiting

There's a storm coming. According to the local news media, this is the BIGGEST storm since 2012. The news media is in it's full disaster mode; The hype gets very tiring after awhile. Yes, it's a good sized storm and some trees will be lost and a few fences as well. But I seriously doubt that we will see much more than that here in the valley. Now up on the foothills there is going to be a different story as those slopes were burned over during the past few summers. No trees, no brush or grasses to stop the flow of wet and heavy dirt. That will be dangerous!

Here;I asked the kids if they could find a dozen sand bags for us. We're at an age where moving sand bags is beyond our capabilities. Our future son-in-law came over and stacked them along the patio slider. This is where water rose pretty high a few years ago during a storm. Then he graciously put down some sand bags around the door of our neighbor. He's good son-in-law material.

Today was the usual day to get a few things at the grocery store and at the first store I saw a lot of anxious shoppers. 'Storm shoppers'. They were rushing from aisle to aisle in their quest to stock up for the duration. That was Raley's market and then I drove to Trader Joe's for some other items. Same kind of crowd! But Trader Joe's crowds are better behaved than most. I left the Trader and drove to Safeway for the final leg of my shopping. We have the time and the stores are close enough for us to shop for bargains among the three stores. Safeway was the worst of the three. People were frantic. carts were going every which way and I considered myself lucky to get out of there without any scars.

I was doing all of this shopping while driving my new car. We bought a bright red, brand new Scion Xb (Toyota) I wen t shopping for a vehicle to replace my Ford pickup as it was becoming more and more difficult for me to get in the darn thing. I had to use a hand to hold onto my cuff, lift and get it on to the floorboard. Then I would invariably hit my head on the door frame as I lifted myself onto the seat. So I set out to look for vehicles that would allow me to get in and out without injury. I tried the Nissan Cube and it fit me just right. We have a Nissan sedan that has been a great car for us so I liked the idea of owning another Nissan product. But...2014 is the last model year as was the Honda Element, another possibility. That left the Scion as the last chance. At the dealership I opened the door and sat right down as if seating myself in my living room. I was almost hooked. I drove the little car and it was surprisingly big inside; plus it had plenty of power. Under the hood is the Toyota Camry engine; that was a plus as Toyota's have a good reputation. Then I was hooked and bought it right then, giving up my old pickup in trade. I wasn't a bit sad to see it go.

It took a few days to get used to the car. It has such a short hood it seems as if you are very close to the car ahead of you. But I love the way it handles; turns on a dime. U-turns are a snap and I can get into parking spaces in a flash. And it's red. Very red. I had to have one. The dealer couldn't find a red one in this part of California and had to get one from a dealer in Reno. They drove it over the Sierras to get it here so my 'new' car had a 178 miles on it when I bought it.

Well, I'm rambling now...just waiting for the wind and rain. Time to close this before we lose power.