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.