A Winter Storm in September in Southern California!

A Winter Storm in September in Southern California!

I didn’t know whether to believe the local weathermen this morning or not until I went outside to take a look around. Now I believe it! The last sliver of clear sky is disappearing over the eastern horizon. Dark clouds are covering the whole sky as they blow in from the Pacific coast on a cold wind.  Strong gusts are predicted. The newsmen report that cars driven by weather-challenged morning commuters are already skidding around on downtown freeways in San Diego and other local coastal cities. Native Californians have a hard time grasping the fact that they should slow down on wet roads. The most amazing thing is that there will be snow down to 6000 feet – in September in Southern California!

I heard the predictions for rain yesterday, and just in case it came true I gathered up every bit of laundry, including the cat’s beds, my blankets, and my cold weather gear that needed freshening, and I drove it to Jacumba to wash at the laundromat. Now everything is fresh and clean.

Outside, I still have to spread tarps over some things. This storm is supposed to last several days, so I’d better put those tarps in place now before the rains come. While I’m out there, I’d better fill some sandbags in case the run-off comes down in a direction that washes under my daughter’s trailer into the pit-bulls kennel area. I already noticed the windows in the shell on the back of my pickup were open and I climbed inside and closed them.

Our trusted neighbor, Juan Philippe Eduardo, moved away a few weeks ago, and my daughter Jane and I are alone here at this Indian horse camp, except for a family of Kumeyaay Indian cousins from Mexico who are staying in the house across the arroyo while they train their children to ride horses and rope calves. They speak only Kumeyaay and Spanish, and I don’t speak either language, so we communicate only by waving at each other as they ride by in single file on their horses. If they changed their modern clothes to former native garb, and added a little war paint, they would look like a war party from more dangerous times. The house they are using is one of the larger models used on this reservation, and is equipped with propane for heating and cooking, so they will be snug and warm and have lots of room for the kids to play during the storm.

I’d better sign off and go out to finish preparations before it starts raining here. Then I can cuddle down warm and snug with my cats and dog to start one of the books I picked up at the library in Jacumba yesterday. They are Whitethorne Woods by Maeve Binchey and Simple Genius by David Baldacci. I think I will read the Maeve Binchey book first.

God willing and the creek don’t rise, I’ll get back to you later.