El Nino Viene

It's raining gatos y perros! At long last the National Weather Service, so often a plaything of fate, has been right on target for California.

Our Monday (yesterday) was spent in tightening up our rough-weather plans: John tied down the carport/awning against the blown-umbrella effect of high winds; I inventoried our well-laid-in food supplies and noted a few little missing items. Around 11 AM, the man of the house drove down through light rains beginning, to pick up the necessaries in the village.

While he was out, the power followed suit: it went out, at around noon. After John had parked a half-mile down from our cottage and hiked up the rest of the way with the groceries, he regaled me with the reason for the sudden silence in our house. A lightly rooted oak tree had tumbled down across power lines and blocked Big Basin Way, the main route to our place from the village.

Fine; we change our day's plans. Now it's hot tea and reading in the big back room, where those lovely windows let in all the daylight there is available. Wrapped in lap-robes and warm with the coverage and the tea, we plowed through our well-selected pile of books chosen for this eventuality. Could be worse, eh?

As the light faded, our brave John donned slicker and boots and went down to the Bracken Brae entrance to see what could be seen: a lot of disgruntled workers standing around in the rain, waiting for a P G & E crane truck to lift the tree off of the wires. These poor peons were ready to do their work of cutting up and removing the big tree, and P G & E linemen were ready to restore our power. But meanwhile, they awaited and awaited the arrival of the crane.

Other local denizens were out prowling around too, and camaraderie abounded – but not light. So John came back up to the cottage, built a warming fire in the woodstove, and gratefully accepted a drink. I lit candles and set up the kitchen for a stovetop dinner, with camping lanterns and matches for lighting the propane stove.

Rain continued; and the power came on at 7 PM. We had dinner and went to bed; rain continued..... but not the predicted high winds (yet).

At 5 AM today, we were awakened by a powerful and spectacular thunderstorm; the reverberating booms echoed down our valley, reminding us of a similar great storm we once watched engulf the Stubai valley in Austria – as we discovered where Wagner got his musical ideas.

So now we are into Day 2 of the week of storms. If the NWS continues lucky, we are due for two or three more powerful storms, day by day, throughout the week. Whenever we have power up here I will try to update this blog, so stay tuned if you can.