The sky was positively threatening today, covered with storm clouds and with the scent of rain in the air. And wouldn’t you know that after days of heat, this much needed relief would come on the day baseball’s All-Star Game was played in San Francisco for the first time since 1984. It might not have shown the picturesque AT&T Park at its best, but at least the game lived up to its name for once.

Actually, there was a warning on the news tonight of something called dry thunderstorms, with lightning strikes. Unlike the marine layer of fog, this other stuff is definitely not typical of summer in the North Bay. And with everything so dry right now, it’s kind of scary. I guess I’d better unroll my garden hose and make sure water will still pass through it. I don’t think I’ve used it since 2003. (No, that’s not right. I washed my car at least twice last year.)

Hmmm. Maybe that’s why the rat is restless. Maybe she senses the change in the weather.

Yes, it’s true, I’m rat sitting again. Now there’s only one of them, though. Whitey passed on a month ago, but Leia survives. David brought her by last night, and then today he and his family headed up to the lake for the rest of the week. I’ve been given instructions on how to feed her, including cutting her grapes in half. At least I won’t have to clean her cage. She was pretty shy at first and wouldn’t let me hold her. I thought she’d be lonely, all by herself in the cage and abandoned by her family. Not that lonely, I guess, although late this afternoon she finally came to me and crawled up and down my arm.