Life and Times in SoCal

Well Christmas and New Year have gone and we are now looking forward to Spring and summer. So whats been happening? As I mentioned last time I had to swap my car, you will not be surprised to know that I got another Tesla, same model - Model Y - but this time in blue and the Performance Version, because the previous one wasn’t fast enough! The real reason is because Tesla made it just that easy. They waived the return costs, wear and tear, excess mileage and new tires and gave me the first month free and 10,000 loyalty points to spend this year, so why not. I didn’t go for the full self drive package as I feel its still a bit of a gimmick and not worth an additional $12,000.

We have started the year by redecoration our master bathroom. We have painted the walls and decided to paint the vanity unity. As is mostly the case here the cabinetry is just left as stained wood and in our case with a white tile top. we decided to paint the cabinets. This was a fairly simple task, thank you YouTube, and added handles to the draws and doors. We also had the glass around the shower changed out last year and had a new tile floor installed in both the master and family bath, this gives the whole room a new fresh feel. We also tackled the family bathroom and 2nd ensuite downstairs. So this years guest should see a big difference. 

We have also had the pool and patio area updated, we had all the concrete cleaned and repainted and resealed. It really has made a big difference to the outside, we knew the area looked tired but now that its been done it looks amazing. 

As I mentioned last time we had Abbie, Brock, Pip and Otto out for Christmas, my birthday and New Year. It was great fun. One of the highlights was having a magical ride on The Polar Express. If you’ve seen the film with Tom Hanks doing the voice of the conductor then you know the story, well our experience was just the same except without the snow and the long trip to the north pole. The only thing we didn’t do was go in pajamas. Almost everyone on the train was wearing PJ’s and it really added to the atmosphere. The kids loved it and so did Pip & Otto. 

As regular readers will know last year we had a year of music, going to various concerts a round the southwest US and I said that this year we would go and see more of the country we now call home. Well so far this year we have booked 2 concerts, the first one to see the Rolling Stones in Vegas and the 2nd to see Hootie and the Blowfish in Anaheim. At this rate I’m not sure where we will go “sightseeing” first! 

We have visitors scheduled for the mid and late summer 1 from my side and 1 from Julie’s side of the families so thats part of the year taken up and we are planning to be back in the UK possibly in May and October, so I can see this year going fast. Oh, and my mom is coming in March for a month. 

During February we have had some weather events. We have had 3 atmospheric rivers come through California dropping over 3 trillion gallons of rain and we had 144 inches of snow forecast for the Sierra Nevada mountains, thats 12 feet but luckily it only managed about 8 feet in 3 days! The media is making a very big thing of it but this seams to come around every 12 to 15 years. We are now officially out of drought and with the snow on the Sierra’s the ski season will last until around August. But I’ll bet that in 4 to 5 years we will be back in drought!

I’m hoping that my son, Jordan and his family can get out here again in the summer for a couple of weeks and my daughters Dominique and Meg. Carys will be back in May for a couple of weeks it would be great if they can come out. 

As always we hope everyone is staying well but just as a throwback, its been 4 years since the start of the pandemic!

Ciao

Paul & Julie

March 2024