Oh Brenda! Do be careful! Stay away from the windows. Keep everyone in a more central / heavily fortified section of the home. Make sure you have blankets, water, kitty food and catnip ... stuff like that. If you can do it safely gather your most important documents and make sure they stay safe.

Now... Get the CD player on and enjoy the tunes until all is over. Mike and I made it through five or six hurricanes ... no problem! (Except for the last one but we won't go there.)

You'll be OK Brenda, Pookie, and Mr. Youreit! Daisy's keeping her eyes on the situation.... {{gwi:162918}}

Her squeaky rubber chicken is ready too! I know. It doesn't look like he's ready but he's as ready as ever. :-) {{gwi:162919}}

Prayers for your safety to you and yours from me and mine!

C3D

Lights are still on, so I'm posting as fast as possible! LOL

THANK YOU so much, Chicka!! And darling Daisy and her chicken! LOL I have the TV on the news, but not sure if that's a good idea or not. It's hardest sitting here by myself, Nurse Keets staring at me like I should "fix this!" I can't stop giggling hysterically. LOL I asked DH last night, when the first round came through..."Are we going to die?" (jokingly) When he said, "No, we'll be fine," I started worrying. LOL

Ok, I better stop posting now. DH is awake!! Yay, I'm not alone! :D

Brenda

My brother has a house in the Sierra Nevada mountains in Arnold, CA. I've not heard back from him or his wife yet but in the 5000 feet and up they are expected to get over 5 feet of snow and 85mph winds today. The worst blizzard I've been in was 3 feet of snow and 60+MPH winds and that was bad enough - snow stinging your skin.

Be careful Brenda and stay snuggled up with DH and pets! Keep us posted if you can.

CT

LOL at Daisy and the rubber chicken - as only C3D can do!

Brenda, I hope all's okay! Check in when you can.

Such a weird storm, I read 6" of snow an hour! Brrrrrr.

I've been through one hurricane that I can remember, I was just a tot and it all seemed like an adventure to me - that's probably thanks to Mom since she seemed to be calm despite having to keep 3 young'uns occupied by herself while Dad was in Vietnam.

That chicken looks like one, that the ever vigilant RCG shot down, when it tried a forced entry into Canadian air space.
"Mogali".

Power must still be out...stay safe Brenda!

You guys are GREAT! And I'm back, yippee! LOL

This is my long post over on the CA forum, so I'll just copy and paste it, since I won't have more time until tomorrow! Thanks for your kind words, everyone!!!

Pacific Gas & Electric was here at 1am this morning, after 68 hours without power...but who's counting? :D The fun of "camping" wore off at about hour 45 or so. LOL

A large limb from one of the dangerous trees we have around here brought down the service line between our house and the street, so we were the only ones out. After being here 12 years or so, I'm still not sure what kind of trees these are, but they're VERY tall and long-limbed, and the landlord hasn't bothered to cut them back at all...even after one of our vehicles was totaled by a limb from the same tree a few years back.

The neighbors were nice enough to let us hook up an extension cord to keep the fridge going, and the well is on a separate line, so we had cold water and flushing capability!

We weren't high priority, so we thought we'd have to wait until tonight to get power. I checked the rest of the yard, and EVERY plant had at least a medium-sized branch on it...but no serious damage to them! I'm so thankful we were all safe and that the birds don't have to huddle under the front porch any more. :)

I don't know what the wind speed was here (my folks in Redding said it hit something like 82mph up there!) or how much rain we received, but I'm glad it's over!

Brenda

P.S. Oh, and it was great to get some laundry going this morning...until the washer started spewing water from its innards! Ack, time to go washer shopping!! :(

Sounds like you have your hands full, glad you're OK!
Sarah

So glad to hear you are okay! Good to hear you had a refrigerator to keep that wine chilled - sounds like you needed a few glasses :^)

And how is the ankle doing now? Are you up to the yard cleanup yet?

Glad you are okay Brenda.
Please accept my appologies, I did not mean to highjack your post, or to dismiss concerns about the awful situation you were in, with my silly comment about Chickadee's rubber chicken.

I hope everything returns to normal, for you and your family very soon.
"Horton"

Hooray for Brenda and the whole crew! Glad you are OK. Trees, lawns, planty things, cars ... stuff like that can be replaced but not YOU! Hope all your body parts are well on the mend too.
:-)

Bet you are ~flushed~ with anticipation at the prospect of getting a new washer.

Thanks, Sarah! :) And yes, my hands were very full, but we made it through unscathed!

Jean, actually, and amazingly, my ankle survived my stunt! My knee took the brunt of the fall, but it is doing GREAT! I haven't tried hoisting myself up into the pickup yet, but I'll have some of that chilled wine before I do. LOL

I couldn't resist cleaning up sticks from the yard yesterday and Sunday. Even though the wind has stopped, I keep finding new fallen branches. Another high wind advisory is on tap for today between 7am and 4pm, with gusts possible up to 50mph, and I'm not looking forward to it.

No worries at all, Horton!! I love your sense of humor, and it feels great to laugh in the midst of madness. LOL Thanks so much for your kind words, really. :)

LOL!! @ flushed! Welllll, looks like laundry will have to wait until at least Wed. The shipment of washers to our local appliance shop was delayed due to I-80 being closed down in and out of Cali. They really got socked in with snow over there! Hopefully, the shop will have what we're looking for in stock by Wednesday!

Hillbilly Brenda

Glad to hear you are OK! Way to hold up in a storm. CT

Brenda, I'm glad that the worst is over... for you, at least - now there's a belt of thunderstorms and tornados going thruogh the Midwest?!? We're supposedly getting thunderstorms tomorrow. I wonder if it's all still the same weather system.

Our DD and family flew high over the whole thing back to L.A. Monday evening, and arrived home safely. The missed the whole thing...

:) Mary

What made me chuckle about this was... "I hope everything returns to normal, for you and your family very soon."...

LOL, like she was normal before! :)

Seriously, sending best wishes vibes your way Brenda! If we could send a truckload of ponders to help with the clean up in your neighborhood you know we would!!!

Sarah

Sahra Sahra Sahra!!!, Oh that were 'way worser than my chicken joke,"like she was normal before! :)" 'way 'way worser fer sure!
Anyway, what's NORMAL around here??????
"Horton"

LOL!!!! Hey, I resemble that remark! Pshaw... :D

Mary, I feel like a complete jerk for not asking how your DD and family were holding up down in L.A.! I'm SO glad to hear that they missed the whole thing!

The wind was pretty scary last evening, but nothing bad happened. Whew. I know when it's high summer and over 100 degrees, I'll look back on all this and miss it. :D

Abby Normal

Brenda:

So glad to hear you are OK. I was worried for you when I watched the news. We had winds 50-60 mph last night so I can't imagine what you went through. Weatherwise nothing scares me more than the wind. You can't see what's coming at you or when it's coming.

Jenny

I'm very glad that everything seems to be back to normal levels of chaos. At some point I would have been kicking myself for not having a generator. Of course, with my luck we would be out of gasoline or DH would be having a hissy because he didn't know it could be hooked up backwards which could cause it to explode like the one at our neighbors. (It looked like a major fireworks display.)
Living in our Earthshelter house, even in the middle of the woods, the wind was never a problem. We could see debris and snapped treetops but we couldn't hear it very well. Lightning strikes and thunder were startling though. I miss that house.
Here in civilization, every tree is a potential disaster. We have lucked out so far as whole trees are concerned but I don't expect that to last. Lots of snapped limbs and branches come down everywhere.
You can do some really stupid things when storms hit and some of the damage being done doesn't need your help to make it worse. Sometimes I wonder why I am still around. When in East Texas, a guy wire for the TV antenna tower snapped and I could tell it was going to come down on a neighbors house so I zipped outside, made a rope harness for the tower and guided this monster down alongside the fence. I can't believe I was so stupid. I could have asked someone to help and it never occurred to me.
I remember getting ready for a dance when the whole house shook. I went looking and found half of a very large cherry tree leaning against the house directly over the power line. I changed into grungies and found a saw and hatchet and rope and proceeded to hack away to get it to fall away from the wires. My boyfriend showed up and had fits. He proceeded to ruin his white jacket with the black bark that was falling down everywhere. We went to a demolition derby instead of a formal dance that evening.
DH and his twin are dangerous around tools. They don't think it through. A large branch was broken half way and they decided to take it down. They decided they only needed to attach one rope which worked as a fulcrum and the branch took out the top of the laundry/mud room.
I sometimes think the cleanup and repair is more dangerous than the storm itself. Be careful, Brandy. Sandy

OMG Sandy, you've got more lives than a cat! Given your back I do hope you have given up roping TV towers and tree limbs! I do admire anyone that can figure out where a cut tree or limb will fall given height, weight, lean, etc though. Sounds like you can do that! I'm scared I'll cut something the wrong way and it and the chainsaw will take me out. My Dad and brother both have the knack...'course we did nearly kill my SIL one day cutting wood, but getting the breath knocked out of her did make her stop talking for a few minutes, ....oops....shhhhhhhhhh, nevermind. (I really do love my SIL, lol!)

Brenda, miss it? I don't think so, you'll still be watching all the squashed plants bushin' out. Lots probably needed pruning anyway... (smile)

Sarah

How you doin', Brenda with your storm clean up? :-) How's your boo boo ankle and knee?

C3D

Brandy, that's a really extreme way to get a new washing machine. I would hate to see what you would do for a new truck.
Glad you got through with no real troubles. Sandy

Thanks, ladies! My knee is muy bueno now. I still can't feel part of it, but range of motion is much better, and I can actually get in and out of the car and truck. :D My ankle has been A-OK - no sprain, nothing.

The weather has been VERY wet, with constant rain since Monday night. And it's expected to continue through at least this Monday. There's no wind, though, so bring it on! :D

Have to take Pookie into the vet today for the first time in many moons, and I'm stressed, because I know how much she hates being crated and transported. I think she scratched her right eye, and it's not healing, as per usual. Then she has some right ear issues that aren't clearing up, either. And of course, the nails need cutting. I won't be able to stand being in the same room as they wrap her up like a burrito and have their way with her. LOL She would probably take down 2 assistants with her teeth and claws if they didn't restrain her.

But it's all for her own good, I know! *gulp* The fun part will be putting in the medicine the vet sends home with us. LOL!!!! Here, kitty, kitty....*scream*

Brenda

Windy over here after it rained. Looks like Big Bear got some more snow (looking out the window at the slightly whiter mountain). They just finally got enough snow two weeks ago. When I was up there on new years the only snow was man made. Heck, San Jacinto (10,834 ft elevation) didn't have much on it up until then. Hope your clean up fairs well.

I really don't end up with much here fortunately all our trees are pretty seasoned. We only have to worry about roofing coming off and the swamp cooler blowing away (this has happened once this year and it was full of water so we're talking like 500 lbs blowing off the roof). Right before Christmas the roof blew off in one spot and took out the power line feeding the house.

"Whew. I know when it's high summer and over 100 degrees, I'll look back on all this and miss it. :D" Not I ma'am. I can't wait until it's 100+. Best time to do yard work lol.

What's Pookie's favorite treat in the whole world? Tuna? cheese? liverwurst?
Here's how you do the meds thing.
Pookie on sofa or lap - pet, pet, good kitty, treat, treat, good kitty, treat, med, good kitty, treat, treat, pet, pet, treat, good kitty.
It helps the first time or 2 if DH can apply the meds while you are stroking, treating, praising non-stop.
You and Pookie will get so good at it you'll be done in no time.

*biting my tongue* Wind advisory from 4am-4pm today. Demmit!

The yard cleanup is all good, and the washer was worth the 68-hour wait. These front loaders sure do make a racket while spinning, though. LOL Some serious RPMs going on here.

I would definitely freak out if our swamp cooler was on the roof, Adrea! When we had ours, it was on the side of our house, and that was scary enough when the wind blew!

Pookie is collared, and she's wearing a perpetual "kiss my kaboose" look on her face. LOL Believe it or not, she's never cared for any treats we've tried to push on her, Sarah. :D But she was a VERY good sport when we put in her ear drops and eye ointment last night. She's not happy about having to go without a kitty shower until Tues. (thanks to the collar), but Bonnet Head (as DH keeps calling her) looks stylish in her new outfit. :D

The neighbors will probably think we're playing some sick dress-up game with her. LOL

Brenda

So...rain Saturday and Sunday. Wind Monday. Hurt myself Sunday because the garage door was stuck open (swollen wood). I called Ocean and he told me I needed to unplug a cord downstairs at which point I realized the garage door was open. Pulled and pulled on the cord wouldn't come down...Here's the brilliant idea..IF YOU HANG OFF IT IT WILL COME DOWN. Actually, the idea wasn't so bad if I'd managed to take into account the stack of shingles in my landing zone. So, I come down, land fine, stumble back, and hit the shingles sitting down so hard my shoe flies off and hits me in the head. Hurt my back. Hurt my pride worse :) Went to work anyway..bad idea in retrospect because we were busy so I had to stock stuff in the freezer on my own.

Monday sitting around feeling generally miserable. Back hurts, and the wind is a steady 30mph with 45mph gusts. I hear a horrid crashing sound overhead and then a sound like someone is running a hose from the roof to the carpet....Yep cooler fell over again leaking all the water from the last time it was used onto the floor. It is still on the roof just needs to be stood up. I think I'll leave it to Ocean though...

Geez, I hope your back is feeling better soon, Adrea! I feel your pain...

I know that sickening feeling when you hear crashing, creaking, crunching when the wind is blowing, but we've been lucky to not have any serious house damage, water or otherwise. I hope Ocean didn't mind cleaning it up, so your back can heal. :)

We're supposed to get some gusts around 40+ today. Keeping my fingers crossed, which I seem to be doing a lot lately, that we don't have any more DRAMA!

Brenda

Dammit!! Don't do stuff like that! If the back doesn't get better with heat, massage, a warm bath with a bit of wine and Capsaicin patches, go to the doctor. You could have damaged your spine or pinched your sacroiliac. Delay will only make it worse. Sandy

adrea. listen to sandy! Hope you're healing!