Alas, had to head back to work today. Fortunately the rain stopped long enough for me to get into work without using an umbrella and stopped in the late afternoon so that I could get home without too many traffic problems. My office window leaked during one of the storms (probably last night), so all my little knick-knacks were sitting in puddles of water this morning when I arrived.

Last night’s storm was a real whopper! Started with rain and wind–heavy duty wind! Two of the patio chairs wound up in the pool, my new swing tipped over (and it’s pretty heavy) and the patio umbrella landed in the neighbor’s yard! We put everything back in place and then the thunderstorms started–lots of lightning, thunder, rain and hail! That continued until well after midnight and I settled into bed with the soothing sound of lots of rain falling outside. The driveway was covered with branches this morning from the tree next door and everything was sopping wet. Rain continued off and on all day and the ground is totally inundated with water. New Year’s Day is supposed to be dry (just in time for the Rose Parade), but the rain is supposed to start up again on Sunday. Think I’ll be trying to take down most (if not all) of my outdoor decorations on Saturday while it’s dry…

Am ready for life to get back to normal. Going back to work was kind of nice in that few people were there and I got lots accomplished. Tomorrow should be better since I won’t have a week’s worth of mail to sort through. Am still debating whether to go in on Friday. Will only have to be there for 1/2 day, but will then have to maneuver my way home through all the crazy people camping out along the parade route. Have time coming, so will probably wind up staying home and not dealing with all the traffic and tourists.

Patrick and his friends will be gone all weekend (camping in Malibu–they’re nuts!) so I hope to get Christmas put away so that life really will soon be back to normal. Plan to start in on the work for all my outside clients right away so that I’m not going nuts at the last minute trying to finish their work to meet tax deadlines. What a relief when all that is behind me.

I think all the rain we’re having is the result of Texas playing in the Rose Bowl. It really should have been Cal playing but the coach of Texas did some lobbying to get his team here. Welcome to rainy Southern California, Texas Longhorns! Hope you enjoy Disneyland in the rain!