Today has been stay home day in California. I will not be swimming until the sun goes down because I am literally glow in the dark white from living in Seattle combined with sunscreen guilt.
Despite growing up in New Orleans and living outdoors for years and years as a child, none of my friends has had skin cancer (that I know of except for a college boyfriend). I attribute it to the gradual exposure to the sun because we wore summer clothes probably 10 months out of the year and got gradual tans that helped protect us from burns. And if it is burns that lead to melanoma, then some part of me thinks those tans we got may have helped protect us. I've never burned as severely in my life as I have since I moved to Seattle 16 years ago. The long dreary winters and springs combined with the now necessary sunscreen has left me so vulnerable to sunlight that I can hardly believe it. If I miss one tiny patch of skin, it will burn to the point of blistering. That never, ever happened to me when I was a southern girl. I might get a little red, but not so burned that it could remove skin. So here I am, in sunny Claremont, staying out of the pool because even a waterproof SPF can't protect me totally. That sucks. But the pain of even a tiny sliver of burn is more than I am up for.
We drove around Claremont this afternoon looking at houses. It is pretty interesting. Lots of old houses and some nice new ones and some really ugly big houses that defy any sort of architectural categorization. I like the Santa Barbara one story Spanish design houses. Every area has its "what could happen" scenarios. In NOLA, flooding, hurricanes, an occasional tornado, etc. In Houston, hurricanes, floods, an occasional tornado. Seattle- earthquakes, mudslides, wind storms, volcanoes. But in Claremont, it is may be an earthquake, definitely fires, desert heat and mudslides when the rains come. So, some things you can't control but others you can hopefully buy or build to cope with.
Izzy the cat is getting use to me- she comes a little closer each day. She'll probably wave bye to me tomorrow.
Tonight Steve's parents are coming over for dinner- they are great people and we will have a lot of fun.
Happy Labor Day tomorrow! We are heading home on Labor Day. Getting to and from an airport is labor intensive, so I hope you have nice, quiet Labor Day with no TSA checks!
Pictures later.
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