Knots To Us!! Or, What to do When It’s Raining Tin and Two by Fours!!

There I was, minding my own business in front of my computer and  totally in command of my small world when, all of a sudden, I hear Connie’s strained voice making a declaration: “It looks like the wind is going to carry away the carport!”. “Well”, says I to myself. “That can’t be a good thing”.

I must admit that I didn’t even bother with the “wind alert” that she gave a little while earlier. The wind came up a bit and presented itself as nothing more than a front passing through. I peered out my window at the waving tree branches then quickly ignored it. I’ve been in Oklahoma where the wind gets serious and we aren’t in Oklahoma.

Then, no notice was taken as the winds began to whip up and become formidable. After all, this is “sunny California”. We don’t allow strong winds in our neck of this “Golden State”. Uh-huh.

The first sight of our carport listing like sinking aircraft carrier was enough to light a bit of a fire in my stride. Had the concrete footings been any lighter the neighbor would have had a new item on which to hang Christmas lights this December.

 We quickly moved the Camry so that the support poles wouldn’t modify the paintjob like they did the van some months ago. The second thing was to undo the beautiful tie-own job we had recently accomplished when we installed the new canopy. Before we finished the wind grew from about 30 knots to 45 kts and was gusting from there. It wasn’t a pretty sight! Stuff was being blown into the yard and all over the place. We actually had a difficult time standing against it.

Connie grabbed the canopy (or at least it looked like she grabbed it. It may have grabbed her) and both ended up on the front porch where they were somewhat protected. In just a short time, the porch would be a shambles, though.

Being rather unafraid of the wind, I ventured out back to take a couple of pictures of the mess. As I was gawking at the neighbor’s barn, half of its roof lifted up and came tumbling over! Then, a 2’ x 10’ section came flying (literally) at our place. I had to dive for the dirt to avoid an episode of sidewalk surgery by a tin scalpel. That was interesting. That was hardly enough to faze an old huntin’ dog like me but Connie persuaded me that the grandkids will need me later so I should at least make an effort to stay alive by returning to the shelter of the patio.

There are at least ten large pieces of tin from the barn that ended up here so far.  We need to count the two long two by four’s that ended up against the house, too. Most likely, I’ll stack stuff up and let the neighbor fetch his building material later.

The neighbor also lost half of one of his oak trees. It snapped in the middle and fell off. We lost a large section of one of our large shade trees and a lot of smaller limbs off the other shade trees on our west boundary. We called our hired hand and he’s ready to come up and help.

I must admit that I have never ever seen 60+ knot winds in this area. That’s bad enough but it appears that peak gusts are hitting around the 70+ knot region. That there is a mighty stiff blow! It’s still more than just blustery outside as I’m writing.

 Dear friends, Fred and Deanna Piazza (a couple of miles away) just advised that their power is out. They called and found out that the power company expected to have the power returned in a couple of hours. We actually knew that because our power went out not long after the blow started. It didn’t bother us because we have the residential generator that came on immediately and the UPS batteries were there for our computers (saving them from a hard shut down). However (isn’t there always a “however”?), the Internet Service Provider is without power so, Ol’ Ran can’t access the Net. So goes life. At least I can finish up some writing and such that needs to be done and a couple of other things that are waiting with bated breath for my attention.

The forecast for today was for a 20% chance of scattered thundershowers. It was really interesting because we didn’t get anything but a bit o’ spit for rain and no lightening or thunder. High winds were not in the offing. We’ve been lied to by the weatherman before so it’s no biggy.

Last night, on the other hand, we got rain and a thunderstorm (if ten minutes of gentle rain can be called a “storm”).  Connie and I sat on the front porch swing for at least an hour and watched the lightning march toward us then sort of slide to the east. It would have been nice to see some lightning bugs but we’re a bit out of their territory. We were quite certain that the lightning would come our way. In fact, it was within a few miles but then it simply skirted us. “Ground strike” lightning isn’t good for your health so I suppose I shouldn’t complain. It’s just that I love a good thunder-buster.

Maggie the Wonder Dog isn’t a weather hound at all. She ran around restlessly for awhile but, when the winds became boisterous, she hunkered down behind a chair on the patio and called it a day. You couldn’t have moved her with a D-9 Cat. We were sure she would want to avail herself of “Maggie’s Mansion” doggy house where little could possibly bother her. But, she avoided it for some reason and stayed in the open and behind a wooden chair (which protected her from nothing but Boeing 747’s the best that I can tell). I’m starting to think that the dog is a silly goose.

A check on the Net (after the power came up) for a news update showed that the entire south San Joaquin Valley got hammered with a thunderstorm today while we were enduring our mini-hurricane. There was a lightning-precipitated power outage that spanned 6 counties! They also suffered a deluge which caused many traffic issues.

The messy storm found its way to Kern Country where it washed out portions of Highway 178 in Kern Canyon. Fresno got more than its share of grief and one man was struck by lightning (and, thankfully, survived). Their power won’t be restored until well after midnight, according to PGE.

Get this….the temp was 109 degrees which broke a 122 year old record for August 19. This kind of weather is extremely rare for here. 

Well…anyway…...after a couple of hours of “adventure”, I just walked outside and was greeted with a warm gentle summer breeze and a full moon. The sky has hardly a cloud in it. Life is once again beautiful at Rancho Relaxo. At dawn we clean.


(No pictures yet. My cell phone is holding them hostage and I need to hack my way into it and recover them)