Storm of the Century

The “Storm of the Century” blasted Northern California beginning Thursday with high winds and rain. Five trucks were blown over on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge yesterday shutting it down. The main highway into San Francisco was closed in both directions due to debris on the road. The Golden Gate Bridge was shut down because of high winds. Here in Santa Rosa we’ve received about 5 inches of rain from the storms thus far and the chaos continues.

Just moments ago, the first bolt of lightening and thunder was heard by me in over 4 years. I will guarantee something will be written about this single lightening bolt in tomorrow’s paper. This morning we were awakened by hail hitting the house. Whoah, there’s thunderbolt number two. Thunder is better here because it echoes off the valley walls. But then again this is one storm with only 2 lightening strikes.

Those of you from the Midwest are laughing right now. Go ahead. Because when it comes to storms, Californian’s are pansies. Unless you live in the Tahoe/Truckee area, where this storm is dumping over 10 feet of snow. Thousands are still without power, and trees have crashed down on houses and cars all over the county, and homes are flooding.

Our back yard has also been affected by the storm. If you are squeamish, feel free to go on to the next story.

Here you see how the wind blew over one of our portable lawn chairs. As soon as the storm subsides I will have to tilt it back up. It also got wet.






The tarp covering my Weber BBQ blew off and is now severely wedged in our fountain. The Weber is now wet.






The little can I use to store my charcoal briquettes, keeping them dry, is now flooded with water...






...because the tempest blew off the lid, sending it flying 15 feet away. Now, exposed to the elements, the can has filled with water, soaking my briquettes. Total loss is set at $14.95.

In this horrific photo you can see where my garden light used to sit peacefully atop its pole. But severe winds blew the top off sending it flying four feet from where it should be. Can you imagine what would have happened had someone been standing there when it went flying? I can't go there, emotionally.

But most tragic of all is how the storm broke off the top of our plum tree. Notice how cleanly cut the branches are. T'was as if the zephyr used a saw, carefully pruning the tree like would have.

For all of you concerned for our well-being, fear not. We shall weather this storm. But just in case something happens where all communications are cut-off, I did not light the volleyball court at LBBC on fire. I wasn't even there. That was someone else.