bunt sign

Saturday, December 14, 2002

Luckily, the weather was so bad today that it didn't bother me. If it had just been marginally bad or mildly bad, I might have been upset. But it was so awfully, appallingly bad that it became the show itself, the diversion of the day. I never gave a thought to going out in the weather, because it was sooooo wonderfully dreadful.

If this had just been a regular rainstorm, I wouldn't have bothered standing at the sliding glass door (on the dry side) watching for so long. Trees were bent over sideways, and at least one in my yard is probably gone. I didn't think about venturing out to try to keep it rooted in the ground. It was the most incredible combination of wind and rain I've ever seen in the North Bay.

This is the second day in a row Santa Rosa has set a rainfall record. By 5:00 pm, we'd already almost doubled the previous high for December 14. Because the season has been fairly dry up until now, the ground is still soaking up the water. That can't last much longer, though, and it only happens when the rain stops falling. There haven't been many breaks since this storm started.

The grass in the back yard is at a perfect height to wave madly with the force of the wind. Add a mountain of rain and an eerie combination of light and darkness, and you have the stuff sagas and fables are made of. Or, you know, something ever so slightly less remarkable and fabulous, like a folk tale or a novella. Something like that.

It was a magnificent display of nature's power. I'm amazed it didn't knock out the electricity for the whole day. It winked now and then but stayed on (although the dish couldn't find its satellite for awhile). Everything was happening on such a vast scale that I couldn't let a few petty annoyances spoil the spectacle.




amaryllis

Almost there. (Can you tell how hard it was raining?)



At about eight o'clock tonight, I heard a loud thump coming from somewhere outside. I looked out every door and window, trying to see what had happened. The roof is so high and slanted that I never think about anything landing on it, but the violence of this storm seems to be capable of anything. I'll wait until tomorrow to check it out, though. Or maybe I'll just wait until spring.




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