Well, I’m back home after the annual visit down south. Trip down was pretty smooth, with a very tiny amount of sprinkling as I entered the Grapevine.

Parents are doing well, and are much more settled into the new homestead now. As you saw previously, we managed three games while we were together. I also hooked him on Starfleet Command while I was there, and set him up with Vassal, and hopefully something will come of that.

Did a repeat trip to Cherry Valley (or really a bit north of there, but Oak Valley seems to have no official presence). Had too much good food at the same place as last year, and brought home some apple cinnamon jelly for the household.

My Aunt Ruth isn’t doing as well, sad to say. She’s recently had to move from Fallbrook to Hemet herself, and don’t know anyone (other than my parents) in the area, and can’t get around too well. We all went to visit the water museum the MWD built at nearby Diamond Valley Lake. We visited the Western Museum (archeology & paleontology) a couple years ago, but this one wasn’t open yet. Not bad, decidedly purposed towards kids (and we cut our visit slightly short in the face of invasion by a couple bus loads of them), but seems a little lacking.

The final weekend was a trip over to Mike and Elaina’s again. They moved a couple months ago, and seem quite happy with the new place. It certainly has a very nice floorplan for the size. Ended up setting my computer in a hurry (which I hadn’t planned on), and we participated in a fun Zul’Aman run that we’d all signed up for without thinking about what Friday this was.

The trip back up went well, and I made very good time (eager to be home). The Grapevine itself was fine, but I hit a storm as I came out of it, saw two huge lightning flashes (couldn’t hear the thunder), had about three five-minute downpours with pinhead-sized hail before it trailed off. The weather slowly improved up the length of I5, and then started clouding again when I hit Gilroy.