After her trip to Atlanta, Donna wasn’t feeling up to par. She wasn’t sure if it was from spending hours cooped up in an airplane with 100 sneezing, coughing people or if she was just stressed out over her laptop loss.

We were planning to attend an informal reunion of Clairemont High people on Saturday afternoon, but Donna decided to stay home and rest. I went by myself as she didn’t need me to do anything. I wasn’t on the original group distribution list of attendees but somehow Donna was on it – Donna didn’t go to Clairemont High, her only connection to the group is through me.

Donna told me the original venue was Offshore Tavern and Grill but had been changed to the High Dive on South Morena Boulevard starting at 1pm. I rode the Spyder to the High Dive and arrived about 10 minutes early. I looked around and expected to see people I knew, but there weren’t any familiar places.

The get-together was organized by my good friend, Carole Sue Bringas. I phoned her but only got voice mail. I figured since I was a little early, I’d just take a seat at the bar and see who might show up. I ordered a Bloody Mary. The High Dive makes an outstanding Bloody Mary garnished with a Gibson onion, banana pepper, cheese cube, celery and wait for it – bacon!

Bloody Mary with bacon

Just as the bartender set down my drink, my cell phone rang. It was Carole Sue. She told me I was at the wrong place – they were on the patio at the Offshore Tavern and Grill. I don’t know how the location got crossed up but I paid for my drink and headed over to Offshore.

When I arrived there, Carole told me that most of the people I was hoping to see had cancelled at the last minute. Jim and Rosellen Taylor weren’t there, neither were Debbie and Bruce Bednarski or Rick and Cathy Siordia. Most of the people there were from the class of 1975 or later, I was class of 1974. I still knew some of the people and had a good time reminiscing over a beer and chips.

Tommy “Mod” in the foreground at the Offshore Tavern and Grill patio

Marty, Dale, Sherry, Steve and Walter

Kevin Barry and Carole Sue

Sunday was NFL football day for me. Sini had to move from her site and relocate to site 158. She packed her gear – I gave her a hand with the sewer hose, but she wanted to do the work herself. I rode with her as she drove through the lot to her new site, then I got out and directed her as she backed into the site. She set up the coach and connected everything herself. She’s feeling pretty good about being able handle the coach as well as the set-up chores.

Donna was feeling much better on Sunday and went for a training run. She covered eight miles and felt good. She’s on track with her training for the 15k race in January.

We had partly cloudy skies and the highs reached the upper 60s. Today I expect more of the same with some clouds this morning and clear skies this afternoon. No pickleball today due to the floor being refinished in Ocean Beach. I’ll play tomorrow at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center.

Over the weekend, the local meteorologists on the news broadcasts were all talking about a winter storm. For someone who spent multiple winters in the north Cascades of Washington and also in Michigan, it’s almost funny.

Here’s the situation. Low pressure cells northeast and east of San Diego pulled the jet stream down the coast. The jet stream dipped all the way down over southern California. This brought moisture from the northwest, resulting in rain all along the coastal areas which then made its way east. It also brought wind – sustained winds of 15-20 mph with gusts of 30-40 mph.

If you saw the NCAA football game between Notre Dame and USC at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, they had several video clips of the palm trees bent by the wind and periods of heavy rain in the first half of the game.

Here at Mission Bay, we had gusty winds and maybe a quarter inch of rain. The rain fell hard at times, but mostly it was short showers off and on. A few miles east of here and in parts of North County, more than half an inch was recorded. San Diego is an area of micro-climates. The coastal areas are usually more moderate than the mesas and valleys to the east.

Waterfowl riding the storm out at Rose Creek inlet

Rain and wind continued on Sunday. Donna took advantage of a break in the rain to go out for a training run. For me, it was a good day to watch football. Some areas had significant amounts of water over the road and we saw news reports of many car accidents as drivers didn’t slow down and aqua-planed, losing control. Another system is supposed to come through the area late this afternoon or evening. Then we can expect to be back to the usual clear skies and warmer weather – the highs only reached the lower 60s all weekend. This was considered a wintry blast.

Last night Donna was watching NCIS on TV. In one scene, I noticed a guitar on a stand in the background of the living room. Not just any guitar – it was a Pelham blue Gibson Reverse Firebird. That’s a fairly obscure guitar. Next to it was what appeared to be a vintage Epiphone tube amplifier. Whoever was responsible for the set must be a guitar geek. I wonder how many viewers caught it. I guess since I did, I must be a guitar geek.

The weekly football pool I enter has been tough. The way this pool works is you have to assign a point value to each game. We only use the Sunday and Monday games, no Thursday Night Football. That meant there were 13 games in this week’s pool. Each game has to have a number from one to 13 – you only use each number one time. If you add up the numbers from one to 13, the total is 91. You want to assign the lower numbers to games that are toss-ups and the higher numbers to the ones you’re most sure of.

Everyone starts out with 91 points. For each game in which you picked the losing team, the point value you assigned to that game is subtracted. At the end of the weekend, the person with highest number of points wins. Once again, I picked nine winners out of 12 games on Sunday – but I lost too many points. Seattle, Arizona and Carolina let me down. I had 11 points on the Seattle game – that killed my chances. Oh well, there’s always next week.

It’s supposed to stay dry for most of the day, but the temperature will remain in the low to mid-60s. Donna is very busy trying to meet her book deadline. I think I’ll get out for some pickleball in Ocean Beach before the next storm blows through.