Hey...we get newsworthy weather out here too :)

LovinMyLife

Wow it's nasty down here in Bakersfield too! Except I WISH it would rain (supposed to tonight). We are in the middle of a HUGE dust storm! Looks like brown fog. I hate, hate, hate them!

I've been in that area when the dust storms hit and they are definitely nasty. It's hard to believe that it's not raining down there too.

The wind ended about 2 hrs ago and that was a huge relief. Outside is a huge mess with lots of debris and some broken branches, but no major damage. Unfortunately, there are a lot of folks who weren't as lucky. The pictures they're showing of HUGE trees that have fallen into homes or cars is amazing. Hundreds of thousands are without power, so that's something else to be grateful for. The streams and creeks are rising though and the rain isn't letting up at all. My pool is above the hole where it drains out, so I hope we get some breaks in the rain over the next few days. The pictures of the Sierras look like they're not getting snow but more rain. I think the next storm to come in will be much colder, so that should get them some white stuff.

Sera_J - how are things your way? 

Thank God the wind has mellowed out... whew!  LOL that was crazy, thankfully we don't have a lot of trees here (high desert) but I forgot to pick up their frisbee and it's gone, and a crate i put outside to wash blew up to the fence, I pulled it into the garage (I didn't prepare much as I came down with a cold or a touch of the flu) to keep it from going too much father.  But, it sounds like you guys got most of the wind.  Yeouch! 

We're flooding, the backyard is a big pond and apparently the streams and ravines are at capacity, but THANKFULLY it's started snowing, so that should help fix the flooding problem, but it's creating a new set of problems.  6"-8" tonight and more tomorrow and Sunday.  The dogs were really pissy about going out in the weather to go to the bathroom, but, I'm verrrry proud of Logan (he's 6 months old) and is doing so well with the housebreaking. He'd go to the door like "I have to potty" and then look out like "But, maybe not that bad." lol!  Poor guy.  But, he didn't go in the house, he just held it and would finally dart out, squat and come running back in at 90mph :)

Is it still raining there?  Everyone still have power? How're your pools?  Did the dust-storm subside? My two sisters have lost electric and mine's been flickering, but so far so good. Maybe now that the wind has mellowed out we'll be OK. 

Well, the wind died down for about 10 minutes then it started raining. They are expecting at least 1.5" of rain tonight! DHs Grandma lives in Saratoga and she said that her porch is flooded and they are trying to keep the water out of the house!

My pool looks horrible! We haven't had enough rain to overflow (yet), but it looks like a giant mud puddle. Yuck!

Sera_J

The dogs were really pissy about going out in the weather to go to the bathroom, but, I'm verrrry proud of Logan (he's 6 months old) and is doing so well with the housebreaking. He'd go to the door like "I have to potty" and then look out like "But, maybe not that bad." lol!  Poor guy.  But, he didn't go in the house, he just held it and would finally dart out, squat and come running back in at 90mph :)

Good boy Logan!! Sassy did the same thing when I took her out this afternoon. It didn't help that I was thinking "oh uck, where are you going to go?"  She found a dry area and did her business in record time.

It's rained consistently the entire day but is much less tonight than earlier so I think I might actually sleep well. DH called to check on the fences and was thrilled to hear they weathered the storm. I saw my neighbor come home, leave again and come back home with 2 x 4s, so I'm guessing his fence didn't fare as well.

Well, here's the aftermath:

 If it had turned to snow sooner we wouldn't be able to get out, as it was I have to mop up from the drift on the back doors.  about 7 -8" with more in the drifts.  Another 2-4" projected for today and then up to 5" more tonight... if someone doesn't hear from me by Monday, bring a plow!

How's everyone over there?  I'm worried about Joyce, did she lose power? I heard 1.2mil in the Bay area did... that's crazy!

Beautiful picture Sera! And I so envy your big back yard! Showers are predicted for the AM, turning into constant rain this afternoon and evening. There was even a little sun earlier this morning, and there are still some patches of blue sky out there, but it's windy. We never did lose power, I'm not sure what areas were affect by power outages.

Thursday's rain put my town over the rainfall of the ENTIRE season last year, (which was only about 1/6 of the average rainfall) and we got another 3-1/2" yesterday. I read that yesterday's storm dumped at least 2" of rain in some areas, and as much as 8" in others. That's a LOT of rain in a very short time with more to come today and tomorrow. I don't think we need to worry about a drought this year.  

 Wow!! You're really getting some rain. We could really use it, but maybe not all at once, LOL! How are the dogs doing in the rain?  Mine were having a rough time, I'm glad it's snow here now, they don't mind that nearly as much, but it's starting to blow pretty good up here again... they don't like that much.  I was just hearing another round is coming through tonight is gonna be more intense than projected, maybe another foot of snow tonight, plus more today.  This is a biiiiig change for a Hawaii girl and dogs!

Thank you, it's nice to have a yard!  In Hawaii I had a small courtyard, I called it the "dogs bathroom" :)  You're more than welcome to come up and enjoy some snow and the backyard, but you'd be required to bring the dog to wear out Logan!

Here's a shot of Logan, you can see how deep it is back there. We had ponding through the backyard last night, it iced over of course and is now covered in snow (laughs evilly) it's funny to see logan hit it when he's really bouncing.  I didn't get a good picture of it, though and he's wising up a bit. LOL 

Wow - that snow looks beautiful. Now we need some of the dogs romping thru it. Maybe they could go on a search for the frisbee

I took Sassy for a run this morning and some minor damage, fences down and a lot of messy debris, but nothing too awful. This area was only developed about 10 yrs ago, so trees are relatively small and structures are newer and sounder. Downtown has the huge trees and that's where you see the most damage.

Joyce lives in Davis and I think that's one of the areas that's still without power. I'm betting we'd have heard from her by now if she was able. I very thankful that we didn't lose power or have any damage.

 The really BIG news today though is the levee near Reno. Apparently they're evacuating 3500-4000 people and are even using helicopters to reach them. That must be so frightening and I hope they all get to safety soon.

ETA - no sooner did I type my post asking for pics of the dogs and there they were. Thank you!!

 Oh, I'm glad it's not too bad there Cathy! ... it's nice you got out for a run, too! I'm sure Sassy appreciated it. I was thinking of putting Logans harness on and my skis and mushing him around the neighborhood! LOL he's a crazy man today, i'm gonna take him for a walk.  Oh, boy, poor Joyce!   Who else are we missing! I hope they are staying warm, hopefully gas stoves, too. Are you guys expecting a lot out of this next storm tonight?

 Yeah, this levee thing is nuts.  I feel so badly for those poor people. Seems the water is receding now but as Cathy said, they have to rescue via helicopter cause the water is too deep and cold to do it any other way.  Fernley is not a place that should flood, this is kind of bizarre.  But it's a huge problem for a small community. 

Thanks for the request Cathy! Here's Logan bouncing around in the snow, he stops suddenly cause that's the icy area (notice less snow there) it was all slushy last night and finally froze over and covered in a cleverly disguised ice skating pond :)

Ha-ha, Logan is sure getting a good initiation experience to the snow and ice. I definitely think that mushing with him would be fun....and fast!!! :) I feel so badly when we can't get out for an entire day, like yesterday. Sassy still seems antsy, so we may have to go out for another run in awhile. I'd sure love to let her play with Logan and Nikki in that snow, but I think 80 just reopened and I'm betting it'll close again off and on throughout the day. The news guy they have posted up there said that there were people in U-Haul trucks with cars on trailers behind them and NO chains..crazy people!!!

It's getting dark again here, so I'm sure rain is not far away. It's also a bit windy - ugh! The weather folks said it'll only be 15 mph or so today but they've been known to miscalculate and with all the rain we've had, any strong winds would be a huge problem.

Lani - do you have a wood burning stove and/or fireplace? I'm just picturing you all enjoying a nice fire in all that snow

Logan is so cute! It's already raining again, it's pretty dark outside and we've heard a couple big booms of thunder. There's supposed to be a bunch more rain from this storm, comparable to what we got yesterday. Our average season rainfall is around 20", and last year we had just 3.51", WAY low. So this is definitely needed, but man, I didn't expect we'd get it all in 4 days, lol!

The dogs are  doing better in the rain than I expected. Usually they don't mind a light drizzle, but when it's a torrential downpour they stick their heads out and give me this look like "you want me to go out in THAT?" But yesterday morning they were in the garage for a couple of hours (they have a dog door to an outside run). I have someone clean for me every other Friday, and I usually keep them out in their pen while she's here because they'd just pester her constantly otherwise. She likes dogs, and they ADORE her, but it's hard to get any work done with two big dogs up your butt.  Anyway, after Sara left I went to let the dogs in and they were laying calmly on their Kuranda beds, but were absolutely SOAKED! I have no idea what they'd been doing outside but outside they definitely had been, with a vengeance, lol!
 

 It's really gonna spank you guys with some more rain, yikes! It's began snowing here again. And oy!  You guys can keep the wind LOL Hopefully it's not as bad as they've predicted...? Maybe? I'll have my fingers crossed for you guys, you don't need more wind.

 Poor Sassy - blasted closed passes.  I'd love to have another dog to wear him out. Nik is not that into the snow, it's a bit too deep for her liking today.  We have a gas fireplace with the fake, ceramic logs LOL not the same thing as wood burning, but it works!  Maybe I should make some hot chocolate and then bundle up to take the dogs out to play some more?  I took Logan for a walk behind the house (a big ravine, that thankfully was emptied/frozen) and he went plowing through the snow drifts. I forgot my camera, too! blasted. But, I'll go back tomorrow... but then we'll have an extra foot of snow according to the forecast to play in.  

 Stay warm and dry you guys. I hope the pups are cozy and snuggly (and DRY!!! LOL)

Keep your electric and give us updates! 

JOYCE -- If you can hear us, we're thinking of you!
 

It rained really hard for a couple hours earlier this afternoon. It had cleared up a little, so I went outside to clean up some of the debris. I'd just finished up a short while ago, came inside and it started raining again. Yay for good timing :)

I actually want to get the ceramic logs for our fireplace. We have a gas fireplace but quit using it about 2 yrs ago cause it seemed to make the place dirty and smokey for days after we'd used it. I want the kind that has blowers, so it puts off heat, but also has a nice ambience.

 I haven't seen anymore news yet, but I'm guessing the Sierras got a bunch more snow today. There will be a lot of people calling in sick this week to go skiing

Yea!! The power is back on!! It went out yesterday about 7:30 a.m. and didn't come back until 4:30 p.m. today. My usual "storm preparedness" consists of putting a votive holder, a box of tea lights and a lighter in each bathroom and moving the corded phone from the bedroom to the kitchen ... then I discovered that because I bundled cable/internet/phone together, when the power knocks out cable & internet, I have no phone service, either.  It was nice and quiet for about 33 hrs. The only thing that really drove me nuts was that because of the storm, it was too dark to read for most of the day. Other than losing a few small limbs from the redwood tree in front, there wasn't any damage.

Joyce

Yay Joyce, glad to see you back. You were more prepared for the storm than I was, so good for you. Did you have a cell phone for emergencies?  I'm sure you were thrilled when your power came back on. I saw on the news that a lot of people are angry that it's taking so long for SMUD/PGE to fix things. Maybe I'd feel the same way, but man, they have a lot of customers to take care of and I think they're doing the best they can.

 Things seem calm tonight, so I hope it stays that way. I slept like a baby last night and could use another night like that.