Semi-arid desert is the climatological designation for the part of California hearabouts. Well, you'd never know it from the current weather.

I left out a straight-sided, flat-bottomed container to use as a rain gauge before I went to bed last night. The brilliant setting sun was slanting to earth under dark heavy clouds. Quite a contrast between light and dark and it looked like rain, for sure.

It rained, all right, about half an inch. To some of you, that's a "big deal" kind of event. To us, at the end of March, it's a WTF event. This is desert. It doesn't rain all month in March. Ever.

Except this year. We're not prepared for it. The tomatoes are water-logged, the cats are complaining, everything is damp--and is that a crawling spot of mildew I see over there? No, just my imagination working overtime.

Personally, I'm not complaining. I love the cool and the damp in preference to the triple degree blasts of sunshine and hot winds during summer and autumn. Just wondering about the unusual weather.

Well, I guess I'm complaining a little. In this kind of weather, there is heavy use of the indoor cat boxes. (Who? Me? I'm not going potty out in that rain. No, siree!)

I agree. I never go potty outdoors, either.