Thursday morning early, Rudi flies out west. He’s going to spend the next two weeks working on starting the process of emptying his mom’s house in preparation for selling it. (She moved into assisted living earlier this year.) He’ll come home for a couple weeks and then head back again. I’ll probably join him for a week on his next go-round, and then do another week later on, too, since he’s an only child and tackling this largely by himself.

It’s the start of a necessary pattern, but one that’s going to require a lot of energy from both of us this fall. Keep us in your thoughts.

This is César “Papi” Castrillón, aka “Papi” Saicos, bassist and vocalist for Los Saicos, a Peruvian proto-punk band performing “Demolición,” one of the band’s biggest hits.

I’ve got no real plans this weekend, and I’m okay with that.

I wish you a relaxing weekend. I hope you get to enjoy it however you want.

Today’s weather forecast promised to be unsettled, so I’d expected to spend a large part of it indoors. However, the storms west of us kept breaking up as they came over the mountains, giving us an ever later target for when to expect the rain and lightning — first early afternoon, then teatime, then after sunset, and finally sometime overnight.

This meant we were able to spend hours at the pool and then wrap up the evening on the patio of our local watering hole (also, a yuppy grocery store) — and that we could also take our chances with not watering the garden.

As I type this, the rain has moved in. It’s not heavy enough to hear it over the a/c, but Rudi could hear it when he went into the bedroom. My phone just warned me of flash floods, but I am tucked inside for the night, so I think it will be fine. But maybe I’ll go check the dry bags by the window just to be safe.

Here’s what I’m thinking I might get up to for the rest of the weekend:

• Swim, just preferably not immediately before the thunderstorms are expected Saturday afternoon.
• Go to the library to return a dvd and pick up some things coming off the hold list.
• Cook tomatoes. (I reserved a flat that I need to pick up at the farmers market.)
• Knit more on my shawl, now that I’ve fixed my error.
• Read, preferably outside.
• Get my volleyball team organized for the fall.
• Do laundry.
• Paint my nails.
• Clean the kitchen.
• Replace the batteries on the fairy lights.

I’m going to postpone Top Ten Tuesday until tomorrow, share this photo of the wake boarders on the mostly deserted post-thunderstorm beach, and head to bed. It’s been a long day.

See you tomorrow!