Not in Humboldt anymore, Toto?

One really has to count one's blessings when we have had the following unexpected surprises recently:




1. NOTHING but sun for about a week!
Humboldt County's weather is much like that of the Pacific Northwest-- cool, coastal, with some summer/fall sun, but overall wet/drizzly winters. We have had some really (I guess, having lived in MN, I should say "really" [i.e down to 30!]) cold nights, with a higher electric bill, frost on our grass and car-scraping to do ("That's a nice [effective] scraper!" commented Kelvin, who used to use either water and/or a credit card in So Cal to get ice of the windshield in the rare instance it was there); however, as a result, we have had a string of about 5 bright, sunny, beautiful days! And it doesn't look like it's letting up anytime soon. It has been so wonderful to experience this little sun reprieve from "normal" winter weather :) While I wisely purchased (and used several times, already) new rainboots, I am hoping I can keep them in the closet for a while.

2.


If you recall, Humboldt County has about the most expensive gas in California (and probably is a contender for the priciest in nation) at around $4.00/gallon on average. You can actually check relative national gas prices here. In any case, in the past week, it has dropped to $3.85/gallon, which had me doing near-cartwheels on my way to fill up my tank, to bide us time until we next get to Willits (about 3 hours south of here, and our normal fill-up spot on the way to the Bay area or Sacramento).

Yay for these small, but significant winter blessings!