May Gray

It is not true that the sun always shines in Southern California. Sometimes it rains really hard in the winter, the kind of rain that soaks you to the skin and is driven sideways by the wind and you can't protect yourself from it. And sometimes it's just gray and cloudy. Along the coastal plains, May and June are gloomy months. We call the "early morning coastal fog and low cloudiness" May Gray and June Gloom. May Gray is out in all its dismal force right now. Today the sun never managed to burn the clouds off. It was sweater weather.

I got an email from a friend this afternoon titled with just the name of an older mutual friend. When I saw the email, my heart sank. Oh no. She's going to tell me that he's dead. I have gotten so many of those emails with the title just being the name of a person. Do people title their death notice emails like that to mentally and emotionally prepare us for the deadly news? My fil used to teach a class titled "Aging, Death and Dying". He always instructed me to ease into telling bad news, to say, "Are you sitting down?" or "I have something to tell you and it is not the best news," or some statement like that. Maybe writing the name of a person like the title of an obituary is the way it's done on email now. How do you title an email "Bad news about your friend"?

I didn't open the email for awhile. I had to steel myself for the shock. So when I finally opened it, the email had much better news than I was expecting. I was actually pleased that our friend is home from the hospital and "only" had heart surgery.

Things are moving ahead smoothly on the purchase of our home. It looks like we will be home owners on Friday.

My weekend was lovely. I got up Saturday morning and pulled on beach walking clothes and went for a solitary stroll along the beach for almost an hour. There were already people out surfing, beach combing, walking their dogs. It was relaxing and when I got back to the house, there was a cuppa from Starbuck's waiting for me.

Yesterday after church we had dinner with the blueberry ranch friends. We've been close friends for many, many years. We just sat and chatted over pasta. We're looking forward to many more lunches, dinners and coffees with them.

Then we spent three hours chatting with John's sister. Mart always makes me laugh. I'm looking forward to living in the same town with her, too.

This afternoon John returned bearing a gift: my Mother's Day present from the Soldier and the Princess! Four cds by The Liberated Wailing Wall! When our car was vandalized over at the Long Beach Ave house, all our cds were stolen. Our wonderful children are systematically rebuying our favorites for us for birthdays, Christmas and other special days. We are thrilled and it makes it easy for them to know what to get the mom and dad who need everything :). Not really. I have most everything I want or need, especially the people who love me. Thanks, Chaplain Dan and Jennifer!