Mmmmmmommmmm!

[Penguinlady[$]]

We are in the middle of a 1-2 punch of huge Arctic storms. Not much rain, but 80 mph winds. We are on top of a ridge that looks at a cleft in the foothills, and the winds roar up the hill from the SJ Valley and slam into our house like a locomotive. I swear the roof is gonna fly off any minute. It's so noisy we can't sleep in our 3-exposure bedroom, because no matter which way the wind shifts, we get slammed.

We're supposed to have huge rains as well, but have't had much so far - the biggie is due tomorrow. Tahoe, an hour away, is braced for 5 to 10 feet by Sunday. We're at lower altitude, which means we'll get rain, not snow. I hope the latest fixes to the roof stay fixed.

The birds at my feeders are flying backward.

I hate this.

Thank God for Benadryl.

[amykhar]

Fingers crossed that the roof holds

[hadassahchana[$]]

Yep, fingers crossed. I wish I could see birds flying backwards, but why would Benadryl help?

[pippadaisy[$]]

Maybe Margaret confused Benadryl for Jack?

[conradd]

Margaret, I wondered how you were doing - we've got storms up here in Oregon too but nothing like what you guys have down there. Looking out the window last night, it was as if someone had turned on a giant fire hose. Sheeets of water blowing horizontally, trees down all over the place, and I have lots of debris in my back yard. Hope it's not your roof.

[theworm[$]]

Oh boy! Hope you got through the storm ok!

[lynnzop[$]]

Margaret, how are you doing???? I read about the storms today and they sound horrific.

[Penguinlady[$]]

Well.

We lost power at 7:30 am on Friday and just got it back an hour or two ago. The phone went out, for some inexplicable reason, in clear weather with no wind, on Saturday morning.

We're on a well, so when we lose power, we lose water, too. I can live without light, and power, and even heat, but not without water. And because PM has refused to replace our old toilets with low-flows, it took 3+ precious gallons of the water we were buying every day, every time we flushed. We holed up in the den with the fire going and every candle in the house lit - very cozy and romantic, but only slightly less cold than the rest of this drafty house.

Yesterday it was 44*F in the house. Peachy has consistently refused to join us in the den and I was frantic that the old girl would get sick because of the cold. So I found a place to store her and we went to friends last night. Amazing what a wonder flushing toilets are.

We lost two huge trees, one of which draped itself gracefully across our power line. So it had to be chopped up before the power line could be fixed. We'll have to get someone to saw up all the wood.

The roof leaked only a small bit, in the new bar, which has plagued us with leaks for 18 months, since we reroofed it. Our deck furniture blew from one end to the other, the heavy BBQ was teetering at the top of the deck stairs, and all my bird-feeders blew off the deck.

But all that is small stuff compared to what has happened in other parts of the country in recent disasters, and we're well and happy. And back on line!

Thanks for all your good wishes and concern -

[magenta321]

I'm glad you weathered the storm (and the lack of water, yikes!)!!!

[pippadaisy[$]]

Glad you are okay! And quit bugging hubby about the toilets. We had to get a low-flow one after Bug laid waste to the old one, and we have to flush it 3 and 4 times for every ONCE we did before. I think it uses more water in the long run.

[theworm[$]]

sounds like a hurricane!
I'm glad you're ok and the power is back!

[hadassahchana[$]]

And what Pippa said about the toilets.

[lynnzop[$]]

Yikes!

When we were strictly on a well and lost power, we'd hole up in a hotel. I'm with you - I can live without a lot of things, but fresh water is not one of them.

Glad to hear you weathered it and are back up and running!!

[Penguinlady[$]]

We had low-flow terlets in our house in Sierra Madre and never had any trouble with them. With only two of us here, it just makes a lot more sense.

In Monterey County, every time a house is sold, the seller has to replace the old ones with low-flow.