Hot Chocolate please...
...and could you put some o' those tiny marshmallows in it?Yesterday at 6:30 am,winds were clocked at 49 miles per hour,and the rain appeared to be falling straight up right here in O-Town!..That's Oroville,Ca. to you Tater. ;)
No way am I about to battle these kinds of conditions trying to get to work on my bicycle,..so I walked.
"Have you lost your mind Sling??..What is this,..some kind of testosterone driven act of macho insanity designed to prove to yourself that you can still do it?...
Yes..It is.
..Now that that's all cleared up.
I arrived at work,none the worse for wear.Along the way I passed by some pretty awesome examples of what this storm of the decade was about.
Felled trees,power lines snapped like toothpicks,and debris of every kind littered the streets.
The photos in the above newspaper were taken within a few hundred yards of our little cabinet shop...(click to enlarge).
This photo below is the corner of Oro Dam blvd,and 5th avenue,across the street,and 3 doors down from work.
We still had power in the shop at this point.
Around 11 am,after a few brown outs,and several calls from the fella's homes telling them the power was out,Mr.K told us to pack it in,and go home..Don't worry,my buddy Todd offered me a ride home,which I was more than willing to accept.
The Lizzard King and Little Newt greeted me at the door.It seems our power had slammed shut around 8am...No juice,no phone(except LK's cell),and NO HEAT!..Holy crap,it's freezin' outside!
Well hell...P G & E informs us that the outage could last for up to 48 hours.
Thank god O-Town's emergency services were still in operation!
*Ace Hardware
*Chin's house of rice
*Sal's liquor store
We jetted down to Ace,and picked up a marvelous kerosene heater.
This thing was more than adequate in heating up the living room,where we enjoyed a fine meal of Chow Mein,and sweet and sour pork.Lizzard King and I poured ourselves great shots of whisky,and settled in for the long haul with young Newt.
We watched DVD's,and listened to tunes on our laptops until the batteries died.
After that,Newt did glue and glitter "projects" by candle light,while LK and I talked,drank,and generally enjoyed the peace and camaraderie that comes when friends and loved ones gather around the communal campfire to share in times of hardship,..however brief,and as it turned out,..pleasurable.
We retired to our beds,buried ourselves under layers of thick,warm blankets,and shortly after rising this morning,our power was restored!
All in all,..it was a perfect storm.
Labels: Great Storm of '08
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28 Comments:
The family thinks I'm nuts, but I sort of like it when the lights go out- makes for a much quieter life for just a wee bit.
Glad you're OK and safe buddy, I was getting a little concerned watching the news. And Tater did a bad, bad thing.. come over to my house and see.
It isn't nuts doll...I.LOVE.THIS.STUFF!
Lord he'p me,..it just makes me feel alive,and connected...Now I'm coming over to see what that bad Tater has done now.
The first few times we lost power here it was fun....then it became nasty. We lose power a lot....wind, rain, snow, sun, falling leaves, squirrels in the transformer reasons. We have flashlights everywhere. Our heat is propane and the heater flame comes on but doesn't blow the air around. The thing I hate the most is not having running water and toilet facilities. Glad all is well with you Sling.
rosemary- This could only be a big deal to people that have never been out of California..Don't get me wrong,there can be some real physical danger involved,and property damage is just not funny,But as far as extreme weather goes,This Colorado boy just went "meh"..
We fortunately aren't at the mercy of PG&E where I live, but it was a scary few hours even with lights on.
jan- I'm no electrical engineer by any means,but here is my estimation;
I believe we actually had power available to us the whole time,but P G & E diverted it to more critical areas as the need arose...I have no problem with that.
I couldn't help but notice that,here in Oroville, grocery stores,restuarants,and traffic lights all functioned normally during the blackout,(which,incidentally,affected nearly a half a million people overall!)..
This was just my little corner of the world,and really isn't anything when you look at the kind of real damage that Mother Nature can dish out when she's really pissed!
P.S.
Don't be scared,..be prepared. ;)
So, how is it now? Are you still being bombarded with wind and rain? I don't mind an occasional power outtage. It's actually kind of fun to light the candles and oil lamps and build a fire in the fireplace. I hate it when my laptop finally dies, though.
serena joy- We are on our third round of storm systems.Steady rain,with possible thunder and lightneing...YES!..
The possibilty of more outages is present,but not likely.
..and you're right.Not having access to the internet was the worst part.
Candle light, good food, good company and a warm bed. Not a bad way to ride out the storm.
mom- ..and yet,there appeared to be some sort of disaster occuring on the 6 O'Clock news!..go figure.
I love storms and a good blackout. There is someting unbeievably satisfying about huddling indoors, safe and with people you care about. But glad you didn't drown yourself walkign to work.
Rain falling straight up? Wow. Glad you were able to take it all in stride. I think I can feel the heat from the kerosene heater just by looking at the picture. How'd you do that?
And yes... I'm back. Beware!
humans have got softer and softer over the years, it takes a renaissance man to look a feckin storm in the eye.
Glad you made it. Indoor camping can be fun!
Wow, you guys got it a lot worse than we did down here. Our storm of the century was more like rain for the day. I love the rain though. I don't like the damage the storm has done elsewhere. Can you believe we can put people in space but can't build gopher proof levees?
I like blackouts as long as it isn't too cold outside and the power comes back on before my stuff in the freezer all thaws. Glad you weathered the storm ok! (pun-y, tee hee)
CS- I think my favorite part was that Little Newt never skipped a beat.He was havin' a ball "camping" in the living room.
babs-o-babs!- Woo Hoo!..
Yep,the rain was coming down sideways,and even straight up!Had to take a couple of detours to avoid some flooded street corners.
I just took the pic of the heater without flash.Turned out pretty good.
billy pilgrim- Actually,I kept my head down pretty much the whole time. ;)
allan- It was guy's night in for sure!
We munched on honey roasted peanuts,told each other lies,..just like the real deal.
sageweb- One thing that is kind of fortunate for us,is that the water level in the dam is pretty low.There is a levee less than 100 yards from my house,but there was never any real concern about flooding.
kimberly ann- We keep most of our stuff in a chest freezer.That thing would keep things frozen for a week!
We did put a couple blocks of ice in the fridge just in case,but it turns out it wasn't really necessary.
What, no pictures of the glue and glitter projects?
Hat- Thanx...I was hoping nobody would notice my slackage..
holy shit...but you know..it sounds like you have a great night with the lizard king and the newt...can't beat that..and dontcha just love kerosene heaters...?
it was 79 yesterday....and about the same today...
yellowdog G.- Kerosene heaters work great.I was laughung at LK's mom.."Oh my god!..You can't use those indoors or they explode!"
..WTF??
Poor woman has never been out of O-Town..
Glad to hear you weathered the storm - weathered the storm get it??? YUK YUK YUK.
And a blessing on Sal and all the purveyors of life's necessities during a crisis.
Actually 48 hours ain't bad and its sort of fun. Back in the big ice storm in Montreal we went 15 days without electricity in the middle of the friggin' city. By day 4 the comrardarie had faded and we were starting to behave like those kids in The Lord of the Flies.
Glad you were able to get through it without too much difficulty! I think that its a given that the only things that will survive a nuclear holocaust are cockroaches, rats, Chinese take out huts, and liquor stores. Buck Rodgers had mansex at a Hilton??? I'm all a-twitter. I hope for your friends sake it was while the show was still taping. Gil hasn't aged too well...
Oh, that was SO MUCH FUN!! As predicted, we only got loads and loads - or rather, inches - of rain. Hardly worth digging out the umbrellas for.
It's wonderful to get all snuggled up with your fellow man!! If I ever get the chance to be trapped on a deserted island or cut off from the rest of civilization, I'm taking you along. We will play Jumbles.
Willym- I've been through much worse myself.When I was stationed at Fort Riley Kansas,a huge ice storm knocked out power for 2 weeks.We lit the hurricane lamps,and kept our food in the snow outside the back door.Transistor radios provided entertainment.That was back in the early 70's,and to this day I still think of it as having been fun.
tater- I couldn't help but notice that most of the businessnes,and all the traffic signals in town still functioned.I'm thinking they somehow allocated power to those things.Our neighboring city of Chico got hit much worse than we did...
...and yes!..My buddy David had to come rushing up to me the next day all excited."I fucked Buck Rogers!!".."Well good for you David!..thanx for sharing"..It was during the time the show was in production.
booda baby- Well I just think that playing Jumbles with booda on a desert island would be the best thing ever!
I'm glad the storm was just bad enough to give you a comfortable campfire of an evening and no more.
i am a bit worried about the heater... please dont die on me!
Sounds lovely Sling... like how it was meant to be...(can't handle the whiskey tho" used to but menopause made me swithc to being a wino drinker...sigh I did like whiskey so" ahhh back to it..sounds like a great time was had by all of youse.
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