The assumption every, say, November day in Southern California is cloudless and 65-75 degrees is 1% mistaken. No, it's more mistaken than that and not only is the joke over so is one phase of a long process/event. The latter began April 24, 2006 when a frantic and indecisive Dad called early in the morning Mom was down, in pain, and he couldn't get her up. Part one ended November 18, 2010 when two brothers and respective significant others moved them into an assisted living home 35 miles away.

Weather wise, this area has different looks in any month and certainly this one comes a cropper. I was not there when the parents were moved but the day was like the stereotype in the faraway four seasoned mind's eye. Indeed it reached 75, was blue with a few wisp clouds and a touch of haze which along with the lower sun angle brought both the promise of the upcoming holidays but a bit of a melancholy mysterious as the unannounced visitor and empiric as Thanksgiving dishes in the sink. I received the confirming call from a brother ten minutes from the end of my work shift. Speaking of shifts, the breeze was now from the usual southeast and a low overcast coated the night as I went to my car knowing the final evaporation of certain, if not all, emergency calls.

The next day started with the low clouds, known to us as an ocean eddy, but lifting and flexing into a front as drizzle came and went. After my community band played an elementary school I went the exact two miles over to the house of my parents and my youth to put away the trash and recycle bins. That done I looked at the house, as I had also been deputized to raid the refrigerator, and felt like the bereaved train conductor as he went by the water tower at the end of "The Sullivan's". Silly me. There's still so much in there, although it will be worked on.

Sunday I visited the folks in their new home for a luncheon. The front had moved away after giving us a pair of impressive drenchings and, in this coastal transition zone, the generously spaced puffy clouds and brisk breeze somehow reminded me of old days of going to appointments and being out of school however briefly. As we warm up again we also know more cycles and contrasts are in a future in which, at the price of the comfort of over a half century in one place, more hands are seen in a fresh sunlight which will be there in the downpours.