Rain

Fall has arrived, no wait now it's gone and winter has arrived. I would have to look at the calendar, as I can not seem to remember the exact day that Fall officially commenced, but I can look out the window to affirm that Summer has indeed passed and is sorely missed already.

The rain started sometime early yesterday afternoon, first with a few random drops spread over three or four hours then finally a committed gushing around seven o'clock. It has not stopped since. The water is much welcomed; Boise has been quite dry since the beginning of June. I'm hoping to get out for a ride if I can shoot the gap between storm cells this afternoon, but I'm not holding my breath. Oh, gotta run, Lauren's rolling out of bed...

Later (two days later!): The rain kept coming but I managed to get that ride in. I rode out Hill Road to the cemetery, relishing the crisp clean air, marveling at the sight of my own foggy breath and dodging downed branches in flooded storm drains. I'd yet to feel raindrops so I pushed my luck, pedaling straight past my doorstep en route to Warm Springs Avenue on the east side of Boise. I made it to the Botanical Gardens when my luck ran out and the skies opened back up. The rain wasn't torrential, nothing like, say, Thailand in terms of flow-rate, but holy geez the temperature was a bit chilly for my taste. Not to mention I was wearing some heavily insulated but poorly-water-repellent clothing that essentially turned into a swamp cooler once saturated. I was ready for some soup when I finally got home.

Fortunately soup was waiting. Lauren and I hit the Saturday Market and picked up (nearly) all the makings of beef stew: market fresh potatoes of all variety and color, shallots, purple onions, and baby carrots. Combined with our own garden's contribution of rosemary, sage, thyme, yellow tomatoes, and parsley, the only store-bought item was the large chunk of beef purchased from Albertsons. In short the stew was amazing, satisfying to feel so connected to the food you eat. Nice to connect with Lauren so much this weekend. She and I have been on different pages lately; or perhaps the same page in different books, I dunno.

This coming week is looking better for, well, getting my head screwed on straight. The only hiccup I'm bracing for (blindly) is the release of my pops from jail. Won't go into that now, but I expect it to be challenging no matter what; challenging if things revert to hell, challenging if he finally comes 'round, so to say. Asi es la vida. In the big picture, I'm doing well at staying so friggin' busy I don't have time to think about life in too much detail; working a main job, doing a smidge of side work, and building/repairing bikes for amigos. Along those lines, wait until you see Greg's new road bike. Sha-bamm.

All right then. Oh, as sort of an ode to a summer passed (since it's raining, er, nearly snowing outside now), here's a wicked panorama I took and stitched from our July visit to Alaska. Paradise.