Rainy Day Ramblings

Well, the Hutchins have been house-bound for about ten days as Carolyn broke out with these bumps on her body Saturday the 18th. We had been up to our kitchen designer to talk about alternatives for a master bath/closet expansion, but Carolyn was feeling a little weird and itchy so we stopped in our doctor's early in the afternoon.

We were fairly surprised when he declared that Carolyn probably had chicken pox! Evidently, a light case in your youth doesn't guarantee immunity in adulthood. She started on an anti-viral and benadryl to ease the itching. But that pretty much eliminated any plans for activities in which Carolyn came into contact with others. So no church, Community Bible Study, art classes or Bible Study. Good thing that the Olympics were on to keep us occupied, and that, so far, I have avoided contracting the pox myself.

Carolyn's CBS friends have been very generous in bringing dinners so neither of us have starved (or had to learn to cook - me). Although the virus can drag you down, Carolyn has tried to do various cleanup projects around the house and has sometimes worn herself out by attempting too much.

This weekend we threw out old picture frames that were broken or tarnished, reorganized the library closet including decades worth of pictures, cleaned out financial files, and straightened both the art studio and the back room. We would stop when we came across a particularly poignant or funny photo, or to examine Carolyn's various hair styles or the length of my hair or beard.

We also came across my travel journal from our 1992 European trip with CVCHS when we chaperoned 15 high schoolers through six countries in 21 days. I read some of it to Carolyn last night and it brought back memories of Munich, Dachau, St. Marks Square in Venice, climbing the steps up the Florence Duomo with Ashley (463 each way), eating gelato in Rome, going to the Louvre in Paris and discovering Ashley had lost her stuffed Lambie in some earlier hotel. I seemed to focus on our meals and the cultural differences or toilets of the countries we visited. But we had a good time!

Today, after much heralding, rain has again returned to Southern California. This will be another test of our recent home repairs and my driving skills as I seek to avoid colliding with my fellow commuters.

"Walking Man" - pointilism

 
 

Boat, Play and Model Homes

Saturday morning continued this winter's bright and sunny days, and I headed down to the harbor to work on the boat with Dennis while Carolyn headed off in other directions for other chores. It was warm in Dana Point even though one could feel the fog hovering offshore less than a mile out.

I polished the stainless steel stanchions and re-stained the teak handrails while Dennis worked on cleaning the transom and the interior. We fixed the drain on the sink, re-wrapped rigging tape on turnbuckles, and a myriad other little chores before Steve came down around 3 and we both hauled Dennis up the mast in our bosun's chair to check out the spreaders and take down the wind indicator so it can be replaced. Dennis gave a show to a three year old passenger on an adjacent boat who was fascinated at how high he was.

After stopping by Wanda's briefly, I headed home for dinner and a shower before we left for the play "Hitchcock's Blondes" at SCR with tickets courtesy of Lewis. We had turned down dinner with Chris and Pattie to see the play which turned out to be a bad decision.

The play resolved around an unfinished early film by Hitchcock and an attempt to decipher the film from individual frames recovered from the deteriorating celluloid. But the '19 year-old' film student, threw around the F-bomb as verb, adverb, adjective and noun so much that we felt assaulted. Added to the profanity were continuing references to sexual acts as either the film professor tried to seduce the student or 'Hitchcock' tried the same or to degrade his leading lady's body double. We felt more and more uncomfortable so that we finally left our front row seats and walked out before the intermission! Today's OC Register's review would indicate that the reviewer, at least, was unaffected by any of that, a warning that we need to be vigilant in our entertainment choices.

Sunday morning we drove into Irvine near the former Tustin blimp hangers to check out a couple of model homes for interior design and master bath research. We'd received an initial design for a remodel of our bath and master closet late last week and we wanted to see how the newer homes were incorporating some of the features we want. Priced modestly in the low $1 millions (cough, cough), these nearly 3000 sq. ft. homes gave us ideas on the size we need for both bath and closet and a possible upstairs laundry room. We took pictures showing large tubs, transitions from stone to wood, and vanities both dual and his/hers. We have a bit more research to do on both layout and materials although I laid out the proposed size of the bath on our bedroom floor using books to show where corners and fixtures were. Carolyn enjoyed my hands on display.

The rest of Sunday we enjoyed painting (Carolyn), watching some of the Olympics (Tor), and church (both). We may also have contemplated how much different the two coasts were this weekend with 85 degrees in our neck of the woods while New York city got 26 inches of snow. Viva California!

Ready to Eat

Gracie waits expectantly to be served on the good china!

 
 

Winter Sunrise

I wake in the dark and stumble downstairs for the paper and to brew a pot of coffee. By the time I exit the shower and have shaved, the winter sun is beginning to cast its glow low in the sky brilliantly coloring the few clouds with hues of orange and red. The colors shimmer off the lake's quiet waters and fill our bedroom with delicious tints.

It's worth getting up for (or at least opening one's eyes) to see the beauty God has blessed us with! What an artist!