like it stopped raining right away or anything

and though occasional clearing in the afternoons let one venture out

mostly it was

an interior existence

into last weekend and beyond

as mud sloughed down from the mountains until

perhaps against one’s better judgement

but, not looking any worse

in the morning, we

set out across the flooded valley and into the Sierra Nevada where miraculously,

after days of closures due to whiteouts and spinouts, there were not even chain controls

although thanks to the the Wisdom of Caltrans having left a “Left Lane Closed” sign [without a

left lane closure in sight] we spent half an hour in nearly stalled traffic between Yuba Pass and

Cisco Grove. It was an otherwise uneventful trip over the hill to pee in the snow after Truckee

and then spend enough time luring the Inkies back into the truck to become thoroughly frozen.

After Reno, gas in Wadsworth,

Nixon

and lunch in chill winds overlooking the Lake the same thing happened but

eventually it was Gerlach

and, only about forty minutes “late”, Wall Spring [not shown] on Tuesday.