Here Comes the Rain Again

After Wednesday's bomb cyclone failed to deliver locally the violent weather its name suggests (though it did pack a wallop in Oregon and Washington) today a steady, soaking rain has set in. A look at the forecast shows that it's likely to rain here for the next four days. We could get several inches of rain over that time. The Sierra Nevada mountains on the eastern side of the state will likely get a lot of snow. Both are a good start to our winter rainy season.

The start of winter? Yes, by my observational standard, it is. Autumn around here begins when it gets cool enough to wear long pants and I need to turn on the heat in the house. Winter begins when it starts to rain regularly. The latter works because of the Mediterranean climate pattern we have in California. We have long, dry summers and mild, wet winters. Virtually all of our annual rainfall comes in a 4 month stretch from generally around mid-November to March. Thus why it's good to get the season started with a good soaker of a rainfall. We need to refill our reservoirs, snowpack, and groundwater tables so they can last us through the 8 dry months that follow the rainy season.

Breaking Bad S4E12: Gus Meets a Gruesome End

The season finale of Breaking Bad's season 4 was an epic episode. It was full of drama, tension, suspense, action, and— most importantly— plot resolution.

Several episode back main character Walt decided he'd have to kill drug lord Gus, played by Giancarlo Esposito. Walt had crossed Gus too many times (even once was too many) and figured out, accurately, that Gus would kill him as soon as he could do so without jeopardizing his business. Now, Gus is a stone-cold killer, so you know that as a matter of narrative art, Gus's death at Walt's hands would have to be dramatic.

Walt, the chemistry wiz, builds a pipe bomb in his kitchen. He conspires with Jesse to lure Gus into a face-to-face meeting and places the bomb under Gus's car while Gus is in the meeting. Gus somehow senses that something is amiss when he returns to his car, pauses to look around, and leaves the area before getting within 50' of the car.

BTW, while this scene makes for great tension, it seems too artificial that Gus sensed something wrong. Did Walt screw up and leave a clue? The episode does not show that he did. This tension would have been better if it were revealed that there was something there there, instead it just being Gus getting a magical spidey sense tingling.

The failure of bombing Gus's car leads Walt to an even more dastardly plan. He finds out that Hector Salamanca, a former drug cartel capo, is in a nursing home in town and that Gus goes to visit him occasionally... to taunt him, as the two men are enemies. Hector is no friend of Walt's, as he considers Walt to have betrayed his nephew, resulting in his death. But Walt figures that Hector hates Gus even more, as Gus orchestrated the deaths of everyone in his family. Walt approaches Hector with a murder-suicide offer, and Hector agrees.

To bait Gus into coming to the nursing home in person again, Hector puts on a show of becoming a DEA informant. He comically wastes the DEA's time, but Gus doesn't know that; al he knows is that Hector appears to have turned into a cooperating witness. Gus decides he will kill Hector, personally. And the trap is set!

( Gory scene - including still frame from video )

Gus, ever the stone-cold killer, straightens his tie one last time before he falls to the floor, dead.