rain brings out Christmas

It doesn’t rain at all in California. Once a month, a man drives through spraying Evian. Hugh Laurie

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/hugh_laurie_593186

I’m irritable in the rain.  While I have experienced every variety of wet weather from hurricanes to tropical downpours  to blizzards in New England, the worst storms I ever worked (in the Navy) were squalls off Cape Hatteras and in the Mediterranean.  Now, a resident of Southern California for twenty years, I am particularly vexed by the few days of winter rain.  With most of the year completely dry,  the stretch between Thanksgiving and  New Years Day, is assured to have some rain.  There is a popular saying that washing our cars on a sunny day will guarantee that rain will soon follow.   In the winter months of Southern California, it generally storms after putting up Christmas decorations!  We live in a neighborhood that puts a lot of energy into decorations and themes at the Christmas season.   As a result over the last twenty-some years and more, veteran decorators plan for winds and rain – so nothing blows down or shorts out.  

Starting last year, we had finally established our house as selfie- worthy, with a unified theme of Christmas Minions in the yard.  And I was NOT about to let the kids down.  But I “subcontracted out” to my kids last week,  as I was focused on more mundane problems – inside the house.  It was nobody’s fault, but wind and rain buffeted poorly anchored decorations flat.  After the rain,  I retrieved all the sodden, mud-splattered inflatables and other decorations and pulled them back to a dry garage.  With rain a memory, on a cloudless Saturday afternoon,  I was a bit overzealous with tie downs, stones, stakes, and even a lead weight;  one of the Minions, Stuart, the biggest one- developed a tear.  However,  duct tape can fix anything.   And red duct tape borrowed from my neighbor is all the more special.   

The evening looks promising.

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