Trying to motivate myself on a stormy Monday after a blissfully over-caffeinated Sunday turned out to be more than I could easily handle today.

I was up late last night and fully wired from — what was it, five? — five cups of coffee yesterday, which is five more than my usual intake. I love the stuff, even though I don't make it particularly well. And I had some stomach acid problems several months ago that convinced me to put away the grinder and the Braun twelve-cup brewer, and get my caffeine from Mountain Dew and Dr Pepper. Diet, of course.

Five large mugs of coffee, four of them made by me, from memory. I never did have the knack, and I couldn't remember how many scoops of beans and how many cups of water made the best combination. Which wasn't that good anyway, but still, better than what I ended up with this time out. It must have been moderately potable, at least, because I kept drinking it until it was gone.

Maybe I just didn't want to waste it. The well water's free here, if slightly brackish in its unfiltered state, but coffee beans couldn't cost much more if they were hand-picked by Colombian virgins, then flown to France and personally roasted by Catherine Deneuve. Picture that.

When I managed the shoe store, I had a person on staff to make the coffee. Oh, he was good with the customers, too, but his value to me, and therefore to the store, was enhanced by having the magic touch with the electric drip coffeemaker. On the night before his day off, he would make up a baggie containing the precise amount of ground beans for the next day's brewing. It was up to me to measure out the water, but I was up to the task.

How I wish he were here today, although I did a little better than yesterday. I used all decaf beans, to try to help myself de-buzz. It seems to be working. I fell asleep in my chair during the third cup.

My Mother's Day Eve entry made Mom cry, which is something I'm proud of. But she had news today that was a better present than anything I could have given her. She's had a dozen eye surgeries over the year, cataracts, retinal detachments, corneal implants. It's daunting what this woman has gone through, and still for several years she's been able to see out of only one eye, and not well at that.

Today her doctor told her that she's made so much progress after her last operation that she can get new glasses that will let her see like a normal person for the first time since he's been treating her. What a gift.

We take our senses for granted most of the time, and it's hard for me to imagine what it must be like to go through the world with that kind of impairment. She doesn't go to subtitled movies. She can't read the captions or make out the graphics in a TV news story. She's gone to kids' soccer and baseball games and not been able to tell which one was her grandson.

I don't know if this new development will give her back everything she hasn't had for so long, but it will be a quantum improvement in the quality of her life. I couldn't be happier for her.

By late afternoon today, the sun was shining on Santa Rosa. But the morning featured some of the most stunning rain showers we've seen all winter. On the left is the view out my front door at about 10:30 today.

And on the right is what I saw looking out my back door. I couldn't have moved one step outside without being totally drenched. So I stayed home and waited for a break before running my daily errands. The country roads I drive on now get treacherous when they're under water. One of them is half inside the city limit, with the other half under county control, and neither entity bothers with maintenance. It has potholes that could swallow a humvee, so my modest little Honda has no chance.