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OK, I'm smiling (literally)

Smiles are good!

I heard from him - he's ok, but has to go out to deliver HW (?) and attend the bike safety class because of the recent ticket he got. And of course he has no rain gear! No one listens to me around here when I suggest what to pack!

On a real serious note, the news tonight showed a town in Ca preparing for possible devastating mud slides. It was in an area that got hit by the brush fires recently and many of the houses have no plantlife to hold the soil. They said it could be the worst mudslide in a century. It was heartbreaking watching them fill sandbags. I hope all of them - and their precious homes - will be okay.

Here on the Central Coast, where any rain is significant because we rarely have any!, it is finally raining... and there are winds but nothing like those you have been describing wiht trees coming down, yet.

Hope all of you stay safe and dry!

Hello Centralparkgirl, you would probably be surprised how many people where I live never wear any rain gear. Today several people used umbrellas and a few had towels over their heads (guess they didn't own an umbrella?) but other than that people had on their regular winter jackets and clothes. I have lots of raincoats that I have purchased over the years and I do wear them but I never use any of my umbrellas. So go figure! And young people never seem to do wear anything different when it rains. A young man walked by my place during the worst of the storm and he only had on jeans and a Tshirt and of course no umbrella.

Hi LI! They're funny, aren't they? And it's not just the guys. I remember visiting ds at school in Rhode Island - it was quite cold and girls were walking around with flip flops on! btw, how are your windows going with the rain? I felt your pain!

Hello Centralparkgirl! Well some of the windows have been installed and some have not. No problem there, thank goodness. It appeared the beautiful old tree in the back garden was going to be downed but all seems well I say with crossed fingers.

Yes, young people are funny, lol. I just saw three more young adults about 15 minutes ago. Althought the rain and wind has stopped for the moment it is sooo cold outside but those three weren't bothered and the girl had on..you guessed it..flipflops! I immediately thought of your son at Stanford of course. Btw, the weather shows more storms and high winds tonight but tomorrow should be better, not such drastic weather. Hugs!

Well power at work went out around 3:00.

Picked up DD from school and arrived home to a limb laying on the lawn. Went inside for 20 minutes and needed to take DD to her tutoring job but another huge limb was in the driveway and the neighbor was yelling "lookout" as another one crashed down inches from where DD was standing. Super scary.

LI - Losing a beautiful old tree is like losing an old friend! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you.

Suzie - we have a family member in Pa who had a very large old tree topple down onto his house. I saw photos and I couldn't believe the damage. The tree went through part of the roof. Branches were in the house. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the 'old friend' was gone and it took quite awhile for the house to be repaired. I believe they had to move out for a considerable time.

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I take it back! Just read that there was a 3.8 eq south of Pleasanton. (For those of you who don't live here, this is a "non-blinkable moment" - it's possible you might feel an earthquake of this magnitude (we didn't), but there wouldn't be any damage or injuries (and there weren't).)