More rainy views and ...

miscellaneous afternoon thoughts ...
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1. Since the 'secure envelope' hasn't shown up in the mail ... I called yesterday to see what could be done ... asked if I could 'walk in' to have them copy my paperwork and was told I could. This morning I made it safely to the Social Security office in Fountain Valley and ran a few errands on the way home. Some intersections were flooded but passable.

... there's LOTS of debris in the streets ... especially here at the beach.

2. At the Social Security office, I checked in ... was given a number ... and waited about 35 minutes to see someone. It took another 25 minutes to get my paperwork scanned into my Medicare file and all but one of my questions answered. I'm supposed to call back next week to find out whether my 'claim number' will be my own SS# followed by a 't' ... or my 'ex's' SS# followed by a 'b' ... apparently it's anybody's guess until the number is actually assigned. I'm assured that my coverage begins on February 1st even if I don't have my 'award letter' and Medicare card. Hopefully I won't need it any time soon. (Taking time to knock on wood before continuing).

3. On the way home, I stopped by Costco to pick up a few things and to buy gas for the Explorer ... made another $200 donation for Haiti while checking out because Costco matches it dollar for dollar and 100% of the money goes to the Red Cross.

4. The ocean is choppy & the skies grey ... lots of water everywhere.

5. I'm glad to be home sipping a cup of tea and watching tennis as I type. Justine Henin managed to come back from a set and a break down in her match yesterday against Kleybanova, but Kim Clijsters wasn't so fortunate in her match against Nadia Petrova who played the match of her life. It was hard to watch Kim struggle with herself and not find her game ... making more than 21 errors and hitting just a few winners ... losing to Petrova 6-0, 6-1 ... something that's not happened to her since Serena defeated her a decade ago 6-0, 6-2.

6. John Isner played a great match against Gael Monfils ... winning it in 4 sets. Andy Roddick defeated Feliciano Lopez in four sets after dropping a tiebreaker in the first set, and Gonzales won his match against Korolev in 5 sets ... Del Potro, Murray, and Tsonga won their matches too. I'm watching the Nadal vs. Kohlschreiber match currently on my DVR with Nadal up two sets ... looking for the win.

7. Although Ms Kitty doesn't like the rain, she likes being indoors even less ... but she does 'hang out' by the French Doors out front during lulls in the weather. (see more photos of her in this morning's post at Small Reflections).

8. Molly wants to go for a walk, but doesn't like water falling from the sky even though she loves to roll around in puddles (go figure). The continuing rain makes a walk look unlikely at the moment but we did get outside for a while yesterday afternoon. It was cold & windy!

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Stormy Views of Newport Beach Harbor





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and for others participating in Scenic Sunday

Thought for Today
"Weather forecast for tonight: dark." George Carlin