Friday, January 04, 2008

My County Is Closed

We are being smacked by a storm so wet and blustery, Marin County has been shut off from the rest of the world.
Seriously. Hwy. 101 is off-limits to traffic from the Golden Gate Bridge, all the way up to Sonoma County.
We can't even escape over the San Rafael Bridge, because the gale-force winds blew over a couple of semis there this morning, so they decided to close that, too.
We don't need to go out for anything, but if we did, there are several shops we could get to easily. Nope, today it's canned clam chowder from the Mood Emergency Rations, one crate over from the Earthquake Survival Kit.
I probably shouldn't have said earthquake.
It came to me in a flash yesterday that it might be smart to put sandbags on top of the fiberglass canopy over the patio. Good idea. That thing has been rumbling around, but it's still attached.
Oh, but part of our backyard fence blew over.
Otherwise, no leaks, no surprises.
Lots of puddling outside, but I guess we're watertight indoors. Nice to discover for our first winter in this new place.

The photo was taken last October, and you can see the sunbursts in the water drops (clicky on the picky). I don't think those water drops were rain, but that's the only drippy picture you're getting today. I'm not going out there with a camera, no sir. It's all we can do to bundle up and get poor little Bean Sprout emptied on the lawn when he insists. He's having a brave-kidney day.

21 comments:

Anita (Married... with dinner) said...

I thought of you guys when they said 101 had been closed. Eeep! Stay warm and dry.

Anonymous said...

Report from San Anselmo: GLUB.

But I'm warm and dry and have power. And lots of strange things I bought yesterday for my Just in Case scenario, ie stuff to eat hot or cold. Today it will definitely be hot, you betcha.

cookiecrumb said...

Anita: Thanks! Speaking of warm, we took Bean Sprout's sweater off last night, and he got all twitchy and needy. Not cold, but he just missed it! So it's back on, alternating with his purple down vest when the sweater needs drying out next to a heat vent.

Kudzu: Any flooding there? Hope not.
Gosh, I forgot to mention the precarious power situation in Northern California. In the Bay Area, currently over half a million homes are without power.
Cranky did a Just In Case scenario today, too. He took out some edibles from the fridge so that he wouldn't have to open the fridge door later if the power went out. Hee.

Sam said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sam said...

At least you didn't have a 30 minute fire alarm evacuation. Yes, it's true. That happened to me a couple of hours ago. AND my industrial strength umbrella turned inside out no less than twice on the way to work. Today walking to public transport did not seem like the best idea ever, but I am proud I soldiered on. At one point the wind wanted me to go back in the direction I'd just come, but after a fight he let me through.

Bon Courage, my favourite Marinites.

cookiecrumb said...

Sam: I hope you were allowed to take your bumbershoot out for the fire alarm. Sheesh, y'know?
Yeah, that wind! I was outdoors during a big gust (I gots no muscles on me) and I couldn't walk through it. I just stood there, waiting to be able to move. Definite umbrella inside-outing, which was very scary to Bean Sprout.
Have a cozy weekend!

peter said...

Just remember to take regular doses of booze (it comes in helpful single-serving bottles.) And at least it's not so cold that you could die just from standing still outside, which is what we've been having here.

cookiecrumb said...

Peter: Poor you. Freezing. Cold.
Stay warm. Skoal.
(Our rain has actually stopped for the nonce, but the third wave of the storm is moving in.)

Ms Brown Mouse said...

Tee hee - we too, have a tin of emergency soup, just the one though and no emergency kits. Hmm, something to think about.
Stay warm & dry.

Dagny said...

I thought of you as I heard of the results in Marin. I knew that 101 would have serious problems around Lucky Drive because that's to be expected. One of my coworkers lives in Mill Valley. His reaction was, "If 101 is closed as well as the San Rafael bridge, how am I going to get home?" I'm hoping that he did finally reach home since the bridge did finally re-open.

I called my buddy BWB around 10:30 this morning -- after 2 hours of no power at the office -- to tell her to stay at home and to not come into the City. And talking to her, I thought of you once more because she was saying how her dog was refusing to go out. Who can blame the poor thing?

The plus was when I finally hit the road home at 5:30 tonight, there was absolutely no traffic on the road. I was back in Berkeley in something like 20-25 minutes. The bad news is that because of the type of work I now do, I may have to work tomorrow.

Linda said...

I hadn't heard about the weather there-living in France-but I was just there this September. Such a lovely area. Wow, those must be some winds. When I lived in Texas we got horrible ice storms and there wasn't a hope of making to anyplace, even work.

ChrisB said...

Oh poor you Sam told me the weather was bad when I spoke to her on the phone but I didn't realise the highway was closed. I can just imagine you all tucked up cosy and warm. Stay safe.

Anonymous said...

I was wondering if that nasty stuff hit you. I'm glad to hear you two are requisitioned regarding either emergency, but I have to second Peter with the booze thing.

And don't say the "e" word!

(FWIW, Michigan is, like, one of the safest states in the US regarding natural disasters. But! I have a nookeelar power plant about 10 miles up the road, close enough for them to send us, annually, a little do-not-panic booklet that's written in, well, somewhat panicky language. So I feel your pain.)

Kevin said...

CC,
I love a good storm, and it sounds like you folks have had a doozy.

Zoomie said...

We spent three hours sponging up the water that was being forced by the wind under our sliding glass doors, even recruited my visiting brother and his wife to help and only barely kept ahead of the water! Sheeesh! Our wind meter clocked 68 mph at the highest gust. Glad you are safe and Bean Sprout gets to go out safely today! If you had trouble with the wind, imagine how it must have felt to a 4 pound doggie! Flying weather!

cookiecrumb said...

Morgan: Now we have to replace the can of clam chowder, for the next mood emergency. Tee hee.

Dagny: Lucky Drive is a given for flooding, but this was insane. San Rafael seems to have received the brunt of the (urban area) force, wind and rain.

Linda: It's nice when your cauliflower plants aren't being blown sideways by the wind. I heard we had winds at 83 mph in my town!

Chris: How could we drive to Ubuntu, with the highway closed? Fortunately, it reopened in time for the evening commute. Thanks for your warm words.

El: We're not having any "e-words," but right now there is the most spectacular, loud, drawn-out, rumbly thunder.
As for your nukyular plant, I guess that site was picked because you are so otherwise, um, safe!

Kevin: You'd be in heaven this week. It's at least a three-day ordeal, but the worst is over now.

Zoomie: Oh, not good. I'm so sorry. I really hate to be right in the middle of a wet weather disaster. Now that you have a little distance on it, I bet you feel a lot better. I hope.

Katie Zeller said...

I've heard there were storms over your way. We've been lucky so far...if you count constant drip, drizzle and fog as lucky.
I've been catching up: Cute little black-eyed cuddly and well done on the beef! That's our traditional Christmas Eve Dinner, too..with the Yorkshire Pud!

Anna Haight said...

Glad you and Cranky came out fine. Dad and I were fine too, just minor stuff. I braved the rain at the Civic Center Farmer's market the day before and picked up some easy Indian food for storm food.

cookiecrumb said...

Katie: We're international with all this precipitation? Well, everything's settling down. We were among the lucky ones.

Anna: I worry about those shingles on your roof! And isn't it amazing what a natural disaster will do to the diet of a food blogger? ;-)

Cyndi said...

So, being in SoCal means that we're at least a day, if not two, behind you. The first storm just went through, and we had rain for 12 straight hours. Mudslides closed the road again, but our handy bulldozers cleared it right up after a couple of hours. I wasn't going anywhere anyway. But the second storm is due tomorrow, and the third one MOnday - maybe I'll get snowed in!

BTW - are you watching the Facebook debates? I switch over to the GOP one during football commercials, but they make me gag. We'll tune in later for the Dem one.

cookiecrumb said...

Cyndi: Mi winter storm es su winter storm! Cuidado.
Not watching the Facebook debates, but we watched the two debates on ABC last night... or is that what you're talking about? Fun.