Strange Days Indeed

What to make of this weather? It's warm and humid, more like the midwest than our usual Mediterranean climate. Chez Boulevardier received a spattering of rain last night -- not enough to register in the rain gauge, but enough to moisten the seedlings Your Boulevardier is cultivating on his back deck. In the Bay Area, any aberrant atmospheric conditions are, of course, nervously referred to as "Earthquake Weather," and this would certainly qualify. Let us hope that the label is inaccurate and that these conditions do not presage instability of the good earth beneath our feet.

Though unusual, the weather is not bad for walking, and Your Boulevardier has been doing some. The usual stops have been made -- the post office, the veterinarian, the grocery. The walking is not altogether pleasant: The sad visage of murder victim Gary Jones looms from many shop windows and telephone poles around town. Trash pickup in Castro Valley remains sporadic, and the replacement workers are as often seen consulting maps as collecting refuse. The remodeling at the local Safeway continues to wreak havoc on both shopping and parking. (This, it must be noted, does not affect pedestrians, except that motorists in the parking lot seem even more inattentive than usual. If that's possible.) On a happier note, a star-spangled collection of red, white, and blue gowns adorns the windows of Kay's Bridal Boutique on Redwood Road, left over, one assumes, from Flag Day and Independence Day.