So, today is Monday 'n the sun is shining...

I know I talk a lot about politics but this nightmare in Paris isn’t something that I care to dwell on…it’s just too sad ’n there’s already too many people talking about it…’n watching Obama ’n his posse dance around the never-ending press conferences just adds to the insanity of it all...

So, today is Monday, the sun is shining ’n Millyrose is due back at the Olde Manor House on the morrow…I s’pect Willy ’n I had better clean up the mess we’ve made of things before she gets here...

I usually start the day off by putting two frozen biscuits in the toaster oven, set the timer for 22 minutes ’n wander off to other early morning chores…’n lately, I’ve been returning to the toaster oven, PLUGGING THE DARN THING IN ’n resetting the timer to the aforementioned 22 minutes…I find the biscuits not only bake a lot better in a hot oven , they taste better also…

So, as I stated earlier, it’s Monday and  a bright, sunshiny Monday at that, but there’s a cool north wind a-blowing…a more or less welcome return to what use’ta be considered  a ‘normal’ northern California winter...

In our ‘normal’ winter pattern, November would bring us a storm about every 7 to 10 days, a little rain on the valley, a little snow on the Sierra…by Christmas, not so much rain but instead that phenomenon known as ‘Tule Fog’…

I grew up in eastern Kentucky alongside the Ohio River so fog was not an unknown to me but the patchy fog of Kentucky, as dense as it could be, ain’t got a thing on the tule fog that can blanket the entire central valley of California…we’re talking a strip of fog filling the entire central valley…miles wide and 500 miles or thereabouts long…haven’t had so much of it the last few years but when I was hauling my tired butt up ’n down the 99 highway back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, we would look to convoy behind the CHP (who couldn’t see any better than the rest of us but he kept us at a slower, safer speed)…

The tule fog of California is how and why that famous reindeer, Rudolph, came into being, but that’s a story that’s been often told ’n you can fill in all the blanks your own self….

It’s been said often ’n by a lot of people that the only constant in this old world is change itself...but Willy, like most dogs, doesn’t really care much for change…With Willy, the S&P morning tour is mandatory...he waits patiently while I have breakfast ’n while I mess around taking a shower ’n stuff but he tends to get agitated when I start pulling on my boots…raring to go then and has a difficult time restraining his enthusiam…

It’s a coolish day for northern California tho’ the sun is shining…a pleasant day for a walk in the park, or in our case, Willy and me, walking doesn’t quite describe what we do…we stroll, we amble, we stop and ‘smell the roses’  although the roses are pretty much gone for the season, it's more of a dry leaves skittering but Willy is a dog and dogs never pay any attention to the odor of roses or skittering leaves, for that matter…more like the odor of other dogs or food or whatever it is that occupies the doggy mind but I’m pretty sure, fairly certain, that for dogs in general, life ain't about stopping to smell the roses...