Rain Rain Rain

In retrospect I should have expected this week to be busy. After all it is the last full week before Christmas week, which makes next week a short week already, if not a very distracted one. But then again I've been dealing with lots of distractions too haven't I. Today SoCal woke up with a dose of rain. A heavy dose. And for the first time in a while, rain gear came out. Fortunately I had Johnnie's brand new Columbia rain jacket ready and waiting. And Lisa did drop off those See Kai Run shoes though too small for Johnnie by now. At least it will keep his feet dry until i can get a chance to get him a new pair today. By the time I dropped Johnnie off at school it was raining REALLY hard. So much so my jeans got wet. I sent Johnnie off with the mini umbrella in my car just for extra protection. And off they went to the auditorium to keep dry until the bell rang. And then off I went home to get to my first meeting at 9 AM, with my IT crew. And then right after that the Operations Meeting. And then hopefully, finally, time to work on my content for tomorrow's batch of meetings. Meetings, meetings, meetings all week long. In the meantime, the true goal for today is merely to stay in and keep dry LOL. This is the kind of day that you'd just get your blanket out and get a hot cup of cocoa and watch TV all day long. Already I got a note first thing that Johnnie's basketball class today at STAR is cancelled because it's so wet out. He will be disappointed at that to be sure but then again we have an activity for tonight actually. More on that later. In the meantime, I flip-flopped between working on my presentation and getting steps in all day long. In may be raining outside. But I can still do my steps indoors. I didn't even need an accompanying YouTube run/walk video anymore. I just did steps WHILE watching YouTube videos. Other YouTube videos. After all, that WAS a big Rams win last night and I did a half hour of steps just watching the reactions in the sports pundit world this morning. By mid-afternoon, the rain actually stopped. And in fact, the sun even came out. And when I took a peek, I saw that the tree in front of my building had fallen down... cracked right above the root <see pic>. Man. I would park right at that spot where it fell too. Can you imagine if my car had been out there? Still, we needed this rain, if only to help abate drought conditions. And although it isn't really winter just yet, it IS time for winter weather.  By 5 PM, I had pretty much gotten all my material done and so I thought I had a lot of time tonight when I picked up Johnnie. After all, we had an activity. We're supposed to buy a book for his Holiday Book Exchange activity. I thought I'd buy it online, but when I saw it was available at Barnes and Noble Marina del Rey, I thought it would be fun for Johnnie and I to go over there, look for it and actually buy it. And so that's what we did. He chose the Grumpy Monkey, Oh NO Christmas. And he even read the book already right there at Barnes and Noble to make sure he actually did want to buy it to give to someone. That was perfect. And then wouldn't you know Panda Express would be right in the same strip mall. And that is where we had our dinner. The lady at the register remembered Johnnie too, from all our days coming here on Tuesdays when I would pick him up frrom Carmen's Daycare. Man how long ago was that? 4 years ago? Johnnie was 3. And here we were again. On a Tuesday night yet. Johnnie was excited to go home only because he still had to wrap the book <with Dad's help of course>. From the moment I picked up Johnnie at school to hanging out tonight at the apartment... that would be the best time today. Which makes it the most important time of all. Yeah, it did rain cats and dogs today and that was most definitely notable. Yeah, I prep for yet another Tech Council Meeting tomorrow and that is definitely so routine it simply isn't that notable anymore. But the Johnnie activity? That makes today a very good day. I understand now why Lisa makes her effort to take Johnnie to museums. It IS the best time.