I think we may have made a strategic error...

The tall blond guy next to me grins as he asks, "So, how did you get roped into this?"

We're standing in the bright California sun, our hair blown by a nippy breeze. I hold a bag with four items and we both watch Jrex as he extracts two boxes from the trunk of our car. I quip something back to the blond guy and we're laughing as Jrex approaches with a huge grin on his face. Jrex shakes his head at us, "I don't know if I like that laughter!" Blond Guy and I laugh even harder as we cross the alley to a cinderblock building, painted brown, no windows.

Inside the air is cool and dark. Jrex asks the guy, "So, is that it then or do I need to come back your way?"

The guy smiles and points to the big sign that reads, "Don't forget your license". Jrex grins and nods, "Yeah, that might be a good thing to have."

Blond Guy leaves and Jrex walks down a narrow aisle. Wooden doors stamped with numbers tower over our heads. In the other direction is a pushable ladder-platform. Jrex sweeps open a wooden door with a smile, "Here we go!" He inters his boxes carefully and adds my four items. We collect his license and as we're driving away, I smile at him, "We were laughing because Blond Guy asked me how I got roped into this, I told him, 'well, my husband is pretty excited about his wine locker, so I thought I should be here to appreciate it'. I don't think he's heard anyone use that phrase before!" Jrex laughed, too, "Probably not. Still it's definitely a lot cheaper than buying a wine refrigerator that we don't have room for anyway."

The chemist has been let loose! The explorer for hidden treasure has found untold gems in the Santa Cruz mountains south of us. Napa...Sonoma? Nah. We'd rather discover little family-run vineyards that are still experimenting. And now we have somewhere to store the treasure.

I don't know if moving to Northern California was a good idea...