The Return of Winter....

On Monday our highs in our town hit the mid-100's. Summer was here with all of its perspiration and heat. We changed our bedding to summer sheets and light quilts, erected our tall oscillating fans, and watered the rapidly-wilting lawn. The air conditioning at church on Sunday was refreshing and entirely necessary. We continued sweltering into Monday and Tuesday as the thermometer read around 104 each afternoon.

On Wednesday the thermometer suddenly plummeted to pleasantly "normal" perameters. And more changes were in store as on Thursday morning we awoke to drizzle and later experienced rain. As we drove home from San Diego after Class Day, we were warned via cell phone by Judith that our town was experiencing an extreme downpour of rain and hail. By the time we arrived home the flash storm was over, the trees dripping onto the lawn and the roof crevices filled with the whiteness of hail. Within half an hour another flash storm had descended into our valley and we were on the road again, driving out to the junior-senior high school's Wellness Fair in which our art council was participating. I passed Judith on the turn out of town, but as we ascended the hill toward the highway, the hail started in earnest. Before we had traveled for three or four minutes, the sides of the road looked as if snow had fallen and our Sienna was slipping slightly sideways as I navigated the road as best I could. Deciding against driving east on the freeway, we passed the on-ramp and proceeded on the back roads, passing a man slipping and sliding as he struggled to get into his van on one of the turnouts. We definitely prayed our way to the school in this winter weather, highly irregular for late May around here. Judith used the freeway and so arrived at the school ahead of us -- safely, thankfully.

This morning we awoke to more rain in our town, and the gray sky drizzled off and on while I was "down the hill" in the city going to church, seeing the chiropractor, and enjoying lunch with Kitty. Before I left Kitty's house, the rain really began falling, and I picked up the kids and drove us all home in Molly, my '91 Corolla, who took the wet roads very well for a four-banger of her age and stature. The high temperatures for the past two days have remained in the high 40's.

So despite all of the preparations for summer, winter decided to make one final fleeting (and sleeting) visit to Southern California. It's supposed to make itself welcome for the remainder of the weekend. We'll continue piling blankets on the beds, firing up the furnace in the mornings to take the chill off the house, and pulling back out our thermal PJ's and winter jackets. Who would have thought we'd be bundling up like this with only a week left until JUNE???????