Friday, January 4, 2008

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

Today was my first glimpse of a hard, winter storm that passed through northern California.

It all started last night with heavy rain and then the wind picked up. The combination was just torrential...the kind of rain and wind where it passes by in sheets and makes the pavement look like it's moving.

When I got up this morning, the wind was howling through the fireplace, doorways, and window sills mimicking the sounds of a cat meowing. I can't even describe the wind - it was fierce and the rain stung your skin when it hit. Talk about a bad hair day...

There were 100 year old trees uprooted from the ground, flooding on streets, pools of mud in backyards, and the little creeks that you didn't know existed were overflowing like raging rivers. I think the most amazing thing that I saw was watching a power line snap in half driving parallel with the road.

As I was looking off into the distance, a bright blue light caught my eye and there was the initial thought of 'who would be setting off a flare in the rain?', then it dawned on me that it was the power line. The line was dancing with blue sparks and waves of electricity which reminded me of watching a heart machine track a heart beat. At the end of the wire was a ball of fire that hit the ground and started a streak of fire... it was so weird to be seeing fire while it was raining. My next thought was of the 6 or so head of cattle that stood in a line, in the water, next to the downed power line hoping they weren't going to turn into all beef patties right in front of my eyes!

When I left work, there was a huge pool of water that I had to get through in order to get on the highway, but I followed a car close enough that they made the wake for me to get through just fine! By the time I got home 10 minutes later, it had let up quite a bit and now it's just raining lightly and not as windy as it had been. There is SO much damage and clean up that will need to take place in the upcoming days. Luckily, we still have power and didn't have that much happen at the apartment complex.

I'm not sure if I'd rather have THIS or ice and snow to deal with?!

I lied.

I'll take this - at least I didn't have to wear mittens today...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Six all beef patties...are you kidding? They wouldn't be as good as those corn fed Iowa cattle...hee hee. Mom

Unknown said...

oh, you miss the snow....

brrrrrrrrrr........