I spent a little time shivering outside in the courtyard outside the rented broom closet where a couple of coworkers go, but none of my time outside today left me as cold and frigid and shiny and inert as this vehicle I later came across in a Whole Foods Market parking lot. May I never see it again.

A metallic gold plated Ford Mustang sitting in a parking lot outside a Whole Foods Market grocery store Wednesday, March 29, 2023 in Walnut Creek, California.

Didn’t even have to walk between the raindrops to check out the greenway and the drugstore. Wildcat Creek was running shallow and muddy, but strong. The rain I’m watching start from our living room will only add to it overnight. Hopefully, incoming winds will take it easy on our trees and buildings.

Bright orange petaled California poppies spring up out of brilliant green grasses like tiny dancing flames Tuesday, March 28, 2023 alongside the Wildcat Creek greenway in San Pablo, California.

By the time we got home from our morning big-box store run, it was as sunny as it was going to get, enough to shutter the blinds for about half an hour. But a half hour later, clouds began arriving in earnest. We reconsidered our provisions, and I went out to look around and score last-minute snacks.

Enjoyed: Garry Moore, Zombies and Caroline Rose songs; coffee with half-and-half and sugar; a kombucha pint glass; a Louisiana hot link sausage with hot sauce; a bacon-infused hamburger patty; images of my nieces at play; a not-quite quarter moon, the planet Venus and the constellation Orion up high.

A wide white mug full of coffee with cream and sugar and a spoon sticking out of the top, next to a pint glass full of blackberry kombucha atop a dark marble countertop next to a bright red coffee grinder Sunday, March 26, 2023 at Rooz Cafe in the 1900 block of Park Boulevard in Oakland, California.

It was warm enough to sit out on the balcony and let the sun shine overhead and play as slow and simple and deliberately as I could, wandering through chords and licks until snatches of other people’s songs began slipping in and out of view and clearly I need to spend time like this much more often.

The backside of a black leather guitar strap hangs off the front of my Gibson Epiphone acoustic guitar Saturday, March 25, 2023 in San Pablo, California.

Sometimes a rock hits a car’s windshield at highway speed, and there are miles and days before repair, and you show up somewhere without an appointment, but it’s a faster cheaper fix than expected, and there’s even coffee a few blocks’ walk away, and the tape can come off in time for the next rains.

Shadows and sunshine reflect against a foot long piece of gray tape fastened to a newly installed glass car windshield Friday, March 24, 2023 in Oakland, California.

Pretty sun shining down, an adult gleefully spinning a giggling child by wrists around and around, and remnant branches and limbs downed by recent winds. It looks like the tents in Snow Park’s far corner held up. I sure hope their occupants did too. Before more rain next Monday, there’s a cold snap.

Various palm and pine trees stand in the southwest corner of Snow Park under sunny skies Thursday, March 23rd 2023 in Oakland, California. Multiple fallen tree branches litter the park in the wake of recent damaging rains and winds.

A hot cup of chicken bone broth helped me warm back up after a day chilled by cold even with a scarf and hat worn almost all day and gnarled by winds and lingering spots of rain. Tomorrow, there’ll be other beverages, and duties to pursue, and maybe even enough power restored to make it all work out.

A small metal cup full of organic chicken bone broth sitting on a blond wood desk Wednesday, March 22, 2023 in San Pablo, California.

No culprit like the sky! Only an hour or so without power and connection, but never a good time for it to happen: a tree down onto a trail line, disabling an Amtrak train, and high winds blowing over a big rig and blocking Bay Bridge traffic right before rush hour, not to mention downing many trees.

A view of clouds in full on villain mode, gray and ominous and foreboding, against the western skyline as seen through our less than crystal clear balcony window Tuesday, March 21, 2023 in San Pablo, California.

Back in the big chair with a decent amount of sun beating down outside for a while on the first day of spring before the rest of the week’s rainstorms, and making calls about last week’s travels and upcoming car repairs and in-play coworker moves while noting larger silences on other related fronts.

A westward view of the bright orange setting sun low on the horizon and filtering clearly through gathering high clouds Monday, March 20, 2023 in San Pablo, California.