The Santa Anas blew one board off of the back fence and into the gutter. It will need to be nailed back on. Other than that, we seem to have come through the winds unscathed.

I spent yesterday morning unpacking and organizing stuff in my new bedroom, cleaning the existing furniture as I went. A three hour shift is about as long as I can spend unpacking a room before I get overwhelmed. But as I'm moving into three rooms (bedroom, study, bathroom), I can fit a couple of unpacking shifts into the same day.

GrandDad spent the morning continuing his filing cabinet purge, and then took a longish mid-day nap. Several more years worth of old income tax records have been consigned to the wood stove in the kitchen.

I went out in the afternoon to run some errands. Got my library card for the town library and checked out a couple of books. I'm on probation -- they want to make sure that I'm going to bring the books back before they let me check out more than five at a time. That's okay. It's not like I don't have plenty of books to read here.

I then went on a long shopping loop around town. It felt strange to be driving by myself through a city that I've visited so many times, but always from the back seat. I've never needed to pay attention to where things are relative to each other or how to get there, but many of the major street names are familiar. So now I'm getting my mental map established.

I found a very well-hidden California Welcome Center and loaded up on glossy maps and brochures on my new home. Then a quick stop at Wal-Mart, and home for dinner.

The unpleasant jolt of the day came in the evening, when I got my new quote from my auto insurance company informing me that my premium would more than double due to my move. Ouch. But my car is really over-insured. So by slashing coverage levels to better reflect the antiquity of the car and my current financial situation, I can cut the cost down to only an extra $30. That's a lot better than $375.

Today's agenda: Continue unpacking. Continue to unscramble the financial, legal, and logistical implications of moving across the country. Inventory the pantry and freezer, and make grocery shopping list.