Sunday Promenade

Abbey Rose has gone off for a week at "socialization camp" to see if living with a pack can cure her of her bad manners when encountering other canines.  The barricades are down. The cat has emerged from hiding and I was allowed an extra hour of sleep this morning.
After breakfast, I cleaned up the mess I made in the garden yesterday. I had started out to spread "slug and snail death" (great product name) and been unable to resist some pruning and tidying of the "cruel to be kind" variety. Snip, chop, tear, yank and all the leaves, twigs, stalks and clippings created a bumpy carpet all over the front walkway. I retired to a luxurious bath and some pruning of another sort, as sunshine has been predicted and California frowns on overt displays of hairy toes, etc.
I was mentally prepared for this morning's efforts to be much more onerous. It turned out to be accomplished in a half hour, after which I started the washing machine full of grubby clothes and towels.
Hubby and I had decided to get out of the house today. We drove less than an hour through foggy pockets to San Juan Bautista, where the sun had broken through. Sunday Mass was in progress in the old Mission church next to the San Andreas fault line. We are early birds and a lot of the cafes, galleries and antique stores were not yet open. We window shopped along the main street, watching the brightly feathered roosters strut and pose for one another, claiming street, and sidewalk as their territory.
There is a Mexican restaurant we like, with outdoor garden tables. Later in the year the chickens roam around but our waiter said they have had a quiet winter and the birds must get used to people again. He served us a couple of Margaritas and we sipped away with the sun on our shoulders as we waited for our orders of crab salad, served in a crunchy homemade shell.
Even though the days are still short, the thermometer hovered around 69 F (20 C) for a few glorious hours mid-day. This is my first T-shirt moment this year and it felt so good.
We were done with our little excursion and back home before 3pm. Hubby went off to hone his napping skills and I did some light, but necessary, grocery shopping. I bought some Febreeze, fabric deodorizer to attempt to bring my car seats back from total wet-dog-dom. I gave a thought to washing the car, but gave up when I noticed that it is not only dirty but covered in a yellow crust of pollen on the outside. The black fabric seats on the inside smell a little better now but have a surprising padding of dog fur. I hate going to the car wash but this is obviously a job for professionals.