I called my mother in New York today to wish her a Happy Spring. She said the weather was beautiful there.

“How is it in sunny California?” she asked.

“Not sunny or spring like,” I said.

I didn’t want to worry her, but we’re getting hit by a Pacific winter storm that’s causing major flooding, mudslides and cold enough temps for snow in some areas. Our street has a creek that’s usually just a trickle of water. Right now it’s a rushing river and there’s no way a car should be anywhere near it. As a result, the road is essentially closed. We do have an emergency escape route that we use in case of a wildfire, but there’s a slide along that part of the road and I wouldn’t go near it either.

We’re stuck here, in other words. We could get 11 inches of rain by tomorrow morning, and then another storm is supposed to roll in on Wednesday and still another on Friday.

The good news is we haven’t lost our electricity – yet. I’m grateful for that as I know others who aren’t so lucky. I’m planning to curl up tonight with the Agassi book I’ve been reading (he’s about to marry Brooke Shields), and my Sunday night lineup of television.

Sometimes, enforced laziness isn’t the worst thing in the world, especially for a compulsive worker like me.

Oh, one more thing. In January I wrote about our downtown Santa Barbara Borders store closing. At the time I was mildly heartened by the fact that the chain was keeping the Goleta store open, which is just another 15 minutes away. Now I find out they’re closing that one too. Soooo depressing.