The Santa Ana winds came back last night. Each new gust would start as distant rustling, like a forest of leaves moving around. Then, in seconds, it reaches us in a whoosh and roar and the house would rattle in response. A high-pitch whistling also accompanies the sounds, along with clunks, rattling, sounds of scraping as people’s outdoor belongings fly around the street as if caught up in the dance of a tornado. I stumbled down at 3am to rescue my little avocado tree, which had indeed fallen over at the front door. It’s just inside our front door now.

This pretty and bright morning proved a great day to not go to work. I left the house about 8:15a and drove almost 2 hours to Pasadena for my 10am appointment with Dentist Andy. I made sure to bring a box of assorted glamour cookies for him and his staff, because the crazy guy is working today on his 34th birthday. We hugged hello, chatted a bit about his recent vacation to our homeland in Asia, and made plans for a group brunch this weekend in one of his favorite restaurants. “Gotta warn you though, the food is really good, but pretty rich.”
I hesitated just a moment and then resolved the internal conflict with, “That’s okay, I’ll just run my 6 miles beforehand.”
Almost 20 minutes later while he was working on my teeth, he said, as if it just hit him, “Do you really run 6 miles?!”
I just said “Ah-hah” which is the best I could do since sharp things were in my mouth preventing me from explaining that I used to run way more than that and am working my way up to it again. Besides, I’ve run 5K twice last week; nothing says I can’t do a 10K by the weekend.

The 50+ mile drive back home was only an hour long, now that I was past the morning traffic rush. I think I tanned, sitting in the car that long in 86-degree sun. Now that I’m home, I’ve cut up some carrots, onions, mushrooms and beef to throw in the slow cooker, and was going to use red potatoes but realized that their normal storage spot on top of the fridge (thanks to Mr. W) has been conducive to sprouting. Very, very conducive. So now I’m online researching how toxic sprouted potatoes are, before I ruin an entire pot of stew. (I learn that the sprouts are poisonous, but not the potato itself. I’ll know I didn’t successfully cut out all the sprouts if Mr. W gets headache, nausea, fatigue, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Stay tuned! >:) )

My immediate future plans: get the stew going, hit the gym, come home when Mr. W arrives from work, have stew. If I can get all those things done I’d feel productive today.