A Journal of Urban Living

But we’re back!

Let’s start with the latest. Then we’ll try to get caught up with grandparents, baptism parties, chicken drama, cat karma and Halloween.

We’ve had a couple of stormy days.  Nothing compared to what R’s parents in NJ had to deal with after some unseasonably early October snow, of course. They had no power for three days and a major cleanup!

But we love the way the rain clears out the air and dusts the peaks of the San Gabriels with snow.

just a 15-minute walk from our front door, uphill

This afternoon, we hiked up the hill above the Oxy campus to take in the clouds.

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It was hot enough to fry an egg in a pocket here at the Dilwedel compound today.  The mercury hit 103F at the closest weather station atop Mount Washington.  Backyard digital thermometer registered 104.7F.

A pocket? you ask.  Wouldn’t that be messy?  Yes it was. It was an accident — not one of Peter’s culinary experiments.

Yesterday Peter fetched four freshly-laid eggs from the coop. He put one in his pocket and smashed it while reaching for the other eggs.  (The chickens have developed a nasty habit of laying under the roost instead of in the convenient nesting box.)  He showed me the gooey spot and we laughed about it. Then he shimmied out of his shorts and left them on the concrete step next to the back door, where they sat all day in the sun…

When I picked them up to throw them in laundry this afternoon, much of the egg was cooked — and caked — on the inside of his pocket.  I had to use the hose on full blast to spray it off.

So there you go! Hot enough to fry an egg in a pocket.