Rain

While the rest of the country seems to have had a really rough winter, California has been enduring drought conditions. Actually we have had very little rain for several years, and it has finally become worrisome for water supplies, since much of California's water is collected and stored in reservoirs in winter and distributed in summer.

The lack of rain and warm temperatures were really nice for us here at Camp Driveway. But all of that has changed in the last few weeks. We had a pretty good storm ten days ago, and another system rolled in this past week. We have had five or six inches of rain in the last few days, and expect it to continue for several more.

One night of a gentle pitter-patter of rain on the RV roof can be soothing. Two nights of driving, pounding noise, with an occasional loud thump from a dropped pine cone or small branch gets to be a bit disconcerting. By the fourth night, the rain sound no longer keeps us awake, but I am a bit concerned about some of the trees that are quite near the coach.

The ground is getting saturated!

The tree closest to the Alfa (blue arrow) is a madrone. When we had some tree work done before bringing the Alfa home, the main trunk was cut off and only this branch which leans away from the Alfa remains. I'm not worried about it.

But up hill is a large fir tree (red arrow). A sister tree fell next to it a few years ago. If this one goes, it could hit us. We may die in Camp Driveway! But, probably not.

We did have some sunshine this afternoon, but it is starting to rain again. I went and bought some ear plugs this afternoon. I'm going to try them tonight. Maybe they will come in handy in the future if we are at a noisy Walmart.

I keep checking the seven day forecast for Pismo Beach. It is raining there today too, but sunshine is predicted for most of next week. I'm ready! The rain might be good for California, but I am ready for some dry beach days.

Some news about our son Gil. He finished his first year as an English teacher at a public boys' junior high in Bangkok this week. He is living on a very tight budget, and he really needed to find work for the three month "summer" break because he wouldn't get paid during that time, and was unable to get far enough ahead to cover his expenses. Coming back to the US was not an option.

He had applied for a couple of other teaching positions, and this week has signed on for a one year contract teaching in Yangoon Myanmar (Burma).

I don't know much about the job, except that it is through a private Australian company that does English programs for adults and for businesses. It sounds like a very good opportunity for him. Teaching junior high was a challenge. In his last video the boys in one of his classes gave him a nice "thank you teacher" send-off. But personally, having taught both in public schools and in business situations, I would take the adults every time.

As a mother, I am a bit uneasy about the country. Myanmar is not politically stable and has very strong ties with China. It is indeed a third-world country with questionable conditions.

from the web

But then I think back on what his apartments have looked like, and perhaps this is an improvement! (Just a mother's view of her son's housekeeping.)

This picture is not of his room. 



He also tells us the internet is very bad there, so we will probably not hear from him as often as we would like.

But all of that said, he is not a fresh faced kid. He is almost forty-four and quite knowledgeable about the world. He will be fine, and add another adventure to his life.

Hitting the road as fulltime RVers pales in comparison.