According to the news, the California drought is over.  The snowpack was close to a record, and we’ll have water in the river all summer.  That’ makes it odd to see the river going down right now.  It was bright and sparkling in the sun this morning, but there were sandbars there that weren’t there a few days ago.

It seems especially odd since there’s more water than this downriver.  That water, of course, is being turned into the river farther down, from the canals.  Our water is what’s coming down from Isabella, and they’re using most of the runoff to fill the lake.

With all of the worries about Isabella Dam and its supposed vulnerability to quake damage, I don’t suppose they’ll let it fill all the way.  There should be plenty of water this summer, probably so much that horses won’t be able to cross again.  We can always go upriver and cross at the weirs, so it’s a good tradeoff.

I read a very good book this week.  Most of us have read the poem “My Last Duchess”, by Robert Browning, if only as an assignment.  It’s a little masterpiece; a whole story in a few lines, telling how the Evil Duke murdered his lovely young duchess.  This book is The Second Duchess, by Elizabeth Doupas.  Sure enough, it tells the story of the duke’s second marriage.  It’s fascinating, not only for the plot, but for the details of the opulent life of the nobility in Renaissance Italy.  And it has puppies!

After I read it, I got on Wikipedia and looked up the people involved.  I’m glad I didn’t do it first — talk about spoilers. 

If you like historical novels, this is certainly a good one.  My only gripe was the Reader’s Guide at the back.  I hate those “Questions for Discussion” — they are the same uninspired kind of questions that spoiled a good read back in high school.  Like, “What book strongly influenced and shaped you while growing up?”  I always want to answer, “Mad Magazine”.