More storm damage

While I was meeting with the Tree Guy to arrange the clearing of the fallen tree, I got a call from my boss that a large part of our back fence at the coast had blown over. The termites must have been frightened by the storm and stopped holding hands.

Our Gust meter indicated a high of 50 mph, but it reads a little low I believe. We got off lucky, just behind our house I saw THIS.

This took out phone and power lines for a bunch of houses, and they weren't repaired for several days.

Neighbor update

Our dear former neighbor who lost her house, then was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer last Easter Sunday, made an appointment with Hospice today. She is no longer able to keep any food down. This is just so unbelievably unfair.

The only upside is that she knows how much everyone in our community loves her and how much she will be missed.

She is a former Marine and very patriotic. The picture is of her house July 4th 2009. She did all the retaining walls herself as part of a landscaping plan the would have been lovely, but now will never be done. I used to call them The Great Walls of Norma.

A busy day

Lots of rain yesterday/last night. Two inches in 24 hrs. It was forecast to be very windy, and it apparently was, but I slept through it. Got up, went to Sunday morning yoga, feeling all warm and relaxed, stopped by the trainyard to check on things. At first glance all I saw was garbage cans and chairs scattered around. Then I saw the tarps had been blown nearly off the cars. It was more than I could fix so I called in reinforcements. Amidst some rain and hail, we spent two hours redoing the tarps. In the middle of THAT, I got a call from my tenant that some trees were down. The ones across the road had been cleared by the Fire Dept, but another was kind of, sort of, on the house. A number of other trees on the same street had gone down, several others across the road.

No lunch for the wicked I guess.

house to right

More rain forecast for tonight and the rest of the week. I'm now "on the list" for the tree guy. I suspect other trees may need some attention as well.

A reflection on impermanence

So long Joe, we hardly knew ye

Lost amidst all the recent tragedy, was a small notice of the passing of Joe Morello, best known as a drummer for the Dave Brubeck Quartet, which itself was known for producing music in odd/unusual time signatures.

I always thought he was something special, but I am biased because I have been a Brubeck fan since the mid 60's. REAL appreciation of drumming I believe is rare, and I probably don't even know how good he REALLY was, but people "in the know" seem to agree he was something special.

He wasn't particularly fashionable, but he was damn cool none the less.

An odd "memory" I have of him was that he was part of a very vivid dream I had when I was about 15. In the dream I was watching him on TV doing a drum solo on the Mike Douglas show, when the doorbell rang. I answered the door and an old lady lady shot me. I was dying, the sensation being that of numbness starting at my feet and moving up my body until it got to my head and I woke up. Actually I had another vivid death dream the next night also. The following night I was understandably not anxious to fall asleep, but I resumed "normal" sleep/dreaming. ( I actually rarely remember dreams)

How was YOUR wedding?

I'm sharing this because it's the beach near our house where I've taken a fair number of pictures.