Here's how it looked in Malibu at about 6:00 a.m. Cool and gloomy. A nice change. Drifting fog or a sturdy marine layer - that's our version of a summer rain.

The local coffee houses fill up earlier. Kids order cocoa. Their parents give in to the weather and get whipped cream on their mochas. Dogs on the patio ignore each other and nap under the green plastic tables.

Only the local real estate agents, a group of regulars who meet each day at the same table, make their usual amount of money-scented noise.