Rain Delay
Indio, California: Somehow an entire
week has passed since this little blog has been updated, yet there is still
nothing to report. Except the weather. Rain Delay. My usual sunny photographs are replaced
with this:

Blech. This resort is like a ghost town. Besides the many who have flown home to
spend the holidays with their family, everyone else is hunkered-down inside
their motorhomes fighting cabin fever. It rained for several days. Hard, pounding rain. I will not
complain about receiving rain in the desert. The moisture is so desperately
needed. The change from the usual sunny clear skies just takes a bit of attitude
adjustment, exercise rescheduling (or, in my case, exercise ignoring) and
wardrobe configuration. (Where did I store my sweaters?) On a positive note, my
needlepoint canvas is getting a lot of attention.
The Motorcoach Country Club sent out a "high water warning" via email. There is
no danger of the lake actually spilling over - the warning was to remind people
to watch the roofs of their boats as they sail under the two bridges in the
resort. But no one is boating in this weather.

The water level is usually about 8-inches lower

Stuck
indoors in cold stormy weather, this old gal turns to baking. I had the new Barefoot Contessa cookbook,
Cooking for Jeffrey
,
and all the ingredients to bake the Irish Guinness Brown Bread on page 186. The
recipe is a super simple quick bread, using a can of Guinness stout. The result
was wonderful - as is everything to ever come out of a cookbook written by Ina
Garten. Super moist, slightly sweet, the Irish Guinness Brown Bread went so well
with the lentil soup I served on Thursday, and we have enjoyed a buttered slice
for breakfast as well. Very versatile. Though the recipe called for
"quick-cooking oats (not instant), I had old-fashioned rolled oats and they
worked fine. The recipe includes one teaspoon of vanilla extract. It seemed a
strange combination - stout and vanilla - but, wow, the vanilla really popped
the flavor to a new level. Umami in Bread. I suspect Santa's sleigh is loaded
with copies of Cooking for Jeffrey. I hope he leaves one under your
tree.

My Driver is down to only two therapy appointments per
week and I am happy to announce he has been able to jog a few miles. YES! Just a
few. Mostly he walks, but this exercise has made a huge improvement in DT's
disposition and he is sleeping well again. The outlook is good for a complete
recovery.
We are caring for Our Granddawg, Reese, again. Reese gets walks between rain
showers, and at nearly 14-years-old, he doesn't walk far. His family went to
Hawaii this week. Yes, we were invited, but really do not like traveling during
the holidays - too much chaos... but we are regretting our decision a bit due to
our bad weather and the sunny photos they are sending:


So stinkin' cute. We will see them next week for the last
night of Hanukkah and New Year's Eve.
Until my next update, I remain, your latke-frying correspondent.
RV PARK: The
Motorcoach Country Club
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