It's only 8pm right now but from the looks of it, this day will probably go down on record as statistically the worst weather day of the five years we've lived here.
In no one way did it stand out. We've had almost 2 inches of rain, not close to the record of almost 3 inches in December of 2002. The winds have topped out at 34 mph, less than the 45 mph we had last week. And it's rapidly descending into the 30's temperature-wise, cold but not coldest.
But it never does them all together on the same day. Our storms usually feature one thing: rain (or sometimes snow), wind or cold. Maybe two. But never all three.
We had a bit of summer in December today with temps in the low 60's and peaceful, still weather all day. It was perfect weather to open up the windows and air things out. Given that today was mostly a day of cleaning up around the house, it was a welcome and needed break in the weather. To cap it off, we were treated to yet another scenic sunset. Hopefully those clouds on the horizon won't cause us any trouble.
This photo never got posted last night because of network problems. It
was taken at Denny's during a post TiE panel discussion dinner.
We had a nice storm blow through here last night, almost an inch of rain and winds in the 30's (although I don't think the weather station picked up the full force of the wind). From the looks of the radar picture (thank you weather.com), the storm has passed and things can dry out again.
As a kid growing up in New York City, I loved storms. The sky would gray, the air would smell a bit different, big clouds would move in and then it would pour. Then it was over and we'd get back to city life. Storms cleaned things up a bit, but the city never seemed worse for it.
Now with almost five years of living in the woods, I've totally changed my perspective on storms. Every journey out after a storm is a chance to see major changes. Branches cover the roads, trees fall over, new trenches get cut into the gravel roads by the running water. Things just look very different, whether on a hike or a drive. We thankfully don't get too many fires around here, so it's left to rain and wind to make the biggest changes to our neighborhood.
Oh, and no power outage from this one. What a pleasant surprise.
We woke up to post-Thanksgiving rainy weather this morning after a night of ever increasing fog. We had a power outage around 7am (still out) and it was probably caused by something waterlogged falling over, rather than the winds. It's pretty soggy around here.
Our driveway has been newly leveled for winter having been torn up by the construction we did. Everything is still pretty loose on top and the top soft layer has absorbed all of the water from the rain. It almost feels like quicksand and is very sticky. Good thing we had the boots!
We had a big oak tree fall across one of our trails about 4 years ago. Brett and I cut it up, we ended up having to upgrade our chainsaw (still a bottom of the line model) as a result. It was our first lumberjack experience.
There's a large fir within 10 feet of that former oak tree that's been leaning more and more every year. In the last few days, we've realized that it's made a significant shift and it could very well come down this winter. Unfortunately fir doesn't burn like oak does.
What could be wrong with eating candy all day? Absolutely nothing, of course. One of the perks of Six Apart (which August Capital was also very good for) is the regular supply of candy lying around. Especially Reese's, which are my favorite. Well, M&M's are also my favorite. And now that I think about it, Kit Kats are real good too. And Peppermint Patties, but no one ever buys them. And of course there's Snickers. And...
I traveled over to Oakland tonight to see Wilco at the Paramount Theater. It was a great show, the band seems much more relaxed than last time I saw them. They mostly played from their last two albums and closed with Don't Fear The Reaper (with cowbell!). The only thing better than seeing them tonight is then getting to travel over to Filllmore tomorrow night to see them again. It'll be fun to see how the set list changes -- I bet they play more early stuff tomorrow.
I took a lot of photos with my Canon camera during the various sessions but can't moblog them because I don't have a card reader with me. I may post them to TypePad or Flickr at some point. But during Michael Sippey's talk (which was great, mind you), I finally noticed the carpet. It immediately reminded me of movie theater carpeting, which has been a bit of a running moblog joke.
This afternoon we began our global management retreat, a few days offsite at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley. The set-up went about as it always does -- lots of tracking down wireless networks, fighting for plugs on the power strip and staking out territory on the table. We then powered through two discussion sessions and dug into some meaty issues right up front.
Not unexpectedly, we ran late and ended up with very little time in between the last session and dinner. In honor of our French comrades, we ate at the late hour of 8pm, so by then all of the Americans were pretty tired and hungry. The others were jet-lagged. And this is only the first day.
Dinner (or maybe it was the wine) did perk everyone up and I think we were probably pretty loud. Can't go wrong with Chez Panisse, the food was great and everyone had a good time. We spent much of the time trying to explain the recent election and the differences between the red and blue states. Always fun to have political discussion in a city that tried to impeach Bush.
Towards the end of dinner, a postcard appeared on table from two people at another table. Seems they were both TypePad subscribers (yay!) and recognized Mena and Ben. They're such rock stars. Realizing that I took three pictures of them today and fearing their over-exposure, I'm hereby declaring a temporary moratorium on Mena and Ben pictures for the rest of this week.
We went Sushi Sam's for lunch today but mostly had udon. We did each have a piece of arctic char to start and it was very good. As Mariko pointed out, I didn't eat my kamaboko. Never been a fan.
This picture was taken during that nervous period of "who's going to pick up the bill." I figured that by taking the picture and then blogging it, I would look busy enough that someone else would get it. Ben did. Sucker.
