I wonder if it fell from near the top of the redwood tree. Lots of heavy branches litter the yard.

A flock swept into the pyracantha bush during a brief lull in the winds. It never stopped raining, and one robin decided to freshen up a bit, shaking out his feathers, and having a drink too. This is taken through a less than clean window with camera settings for indoor shooting.

One of the others decided to keep an eye on me.

Most of the shrubbery bending over double as the storm continues. A section of the fence is down (crap). It’s going to be a long three days.

Water is pooling in the lower parts of the backyard. The house shudders from high winds, and the vent in the kitchen rattles with debris. The power will no doubt go out, fences will collapse and an explosion was heard earlier (transformer?). If anything, the wind is getting more powerful by the hour. The neighbors’ eucalyptus looks ready to fall.

We don’t get storms like this very often, this is the first in a series of three to pummel us through Monday. Up in the mountains, a family member is going to encounter 150 mph winds and no snowboarding, and might be stuck for several days.

Yesterday after lunch the pumpkin (on my work table) that was outfitted with mini-motion sensing lights kept coming on by itself. A family member had tried to deactivate the blinking aspect of these lights, but was unable to do so Sunday night. I thought perhaps the vibration from my loud music was somehow triggering it. It stopped after a bit. When I tried pounding on the table to start it up, it didn’t work. But after a time, it would begin flashing again.

I spent part of the late afternoon at another house caring for a disabled relative. The dog next door, normally quiet, never stopped barking. The relative, usually napping in a chair, was extremely restless and fidgety, unable to keep still the whole two hours. I was somewhat irritated, because I usually try to get some work done on the laptop, but found it hard to focus for those reasons.

When I got ready to leave, I asked the returning family member if rain was forecast since it seemed so gloomy out. He told me it was clear.

Well, it was and it wasn’t. Six o’clock, a darkish cloud or fog maybe over the foothills. A strange stillness.

The official word (USGS) is that there is no such thing as ‘earthquake weather’.

No less than Aristotle believed that winds in the deepest underground caves were the cause of earthquakes. Which brings to mind this poem by Matthew Arnold, where he mentions ‘Sand-strewn caverns, cool and deep,
Where the winds are all asleep. . .’

I miss my old dog, who always managed to tell me in no uncertain terms that it was going to rain. It wasn’t a conscious act, he didn’t come up, put his paw on my foot, and whine while looking up at the sky. That would have been kind of cool, actually.

No, he just did his usual, leaned his weather-sensitive fur against the door and then sink into a daily torpor broken up by the postman’s visit and regular trips to my various flowerpots. But there was never a mistake, even on an otherwise brilliantly sunny day. Brutie and I knew it was going to rain.

Now that he’s gone, the Argentine ants are trying to take up the slack. I’m not quite on their wavelength, and their collective attempts over the past six weeks have failed. (It did rain yesterday, but I had no idea it was coming.) I couldn’t help but notice their insistence at every crevice in my bathrooms, and their improved resistance to Terro ant poison. Stomping them didn’t work, as it seems every pair of shoes I own has soles designed to protect small insects. My fly swatter didn’t work either because the bathroom tiles have small indentations that provided just enough shelter for a fleeing ant.

Am I going to seek out another golden retriever? Oh yes. Not just yet though.

My mom died a little over a month ago. Saturday, her only sister also died.

My aunt kept up her daily walks until the Ontario weather got bad around September. In one of our last phone conversations, she confided that she preferred going off on her own, rather than depend on one of her aides. When I expressed alarm, she said she liked her own pace. She was 96. Her daughters decided not to tell her that Mom was gone. But I think she knew.

I called up my walking budding, and told her it was time we got back to our old exercise routine. It was short-sleeve tshirt weather, the flowering trees are starting to show their delicate blooms. And now there are not one, but two kindly and gentle ladies watching over me wherever I go.

Kind of like being trapped in a snowglobe that some nasty kid opened up and peed in.

Oh, and it’s oily and stinks too.

It’s currently around 92°, and all 50 of the tomato plants are starting to droop even after being watered last night. (More on those later.) But after enduring temps of 112° and possibly higher for more than a few days, with nights hovering around 84°, we’re toughened up.

Not that 92° is sweater weather. But I can actually function. It’s not supposed to get much hotter this week, but just in case, there’s an unopened tub of chocolate fudge swirl in the freezer. Plus the Cherries Garcia that is also not tapped into yet.

I don’t eat it as often as I should, but tonight I stir fried it with pork, onion and shiitakes. If I had thought of it in time, marinating the pork would have been nice, but who has the time for this kind of thing on a Friday that feels kind of hot.

Must be those Easterners blaming us for all their heat woes.

Hold onto your hats and roofs, it’s that time again. Chris is expected near Florida by the weekend, and just might become the first hurricane of the season.

If you suffered through a recent heat wave at your desk while the computer churned out even more heat, you can appreciate the U.S.B. Beverage Chiller from CoolIT Systems.

The people behind this device point out that chilling an entire can of soda or other refreshing drink is not the idea. What they want to do is keep the last third or so of the drink cold. The part that, when you come back to it, is lukewarm and therefore not that drinkable.

Unless you have access to crushed ice, as I finally do, and highly recommend. If your a/c is not efficient, and I truly know the feeling, a handful of such ice can be applied to pulse points for instant cooling. If desperate, a handful down the shirt always works, if only briefly.

Now that’s more like it!

This is a view from the webcam at Lawrence Hall of Science, which currently shows the area is socked in. If you happen to come by later, chances are good that you’ll wonder what all the fuss was about.

Up till now it’s been pretty much business as usual around here, getting the day job done, keeping the yard irrigated, which takes twice as long as usual, and of course, not sleeping at night. Is this day 10? Can anyone count anymore?

Today my brain shut down. Around 10:30, when the sun beats down on a flat-roofed house, before lunch, before I noted that the tomato plants were all droopy again, and right about when the laptop started glowing.

Some are working in bikinis. My neighbor in back believes that the louder the music, the cooler she feels. I wonder if she’s heard any Slayer recently.

Some stayed at hotels over the weekend. Frankly I think the military should issue those cooling vests for all of us.

Both my sons work in SF, but only one has a view of the bay, and he has just reported that fog is coming in at a good clip. While some appeared last night, it did not cool those of us farther inland, who suffered through yet another sweltering night.

Here’s a view from the Fairmont Hotel. To many Bay Area dwellers, it’s the sweetest sight.

As ‘dense fog’ is expected to cool things down a bit here in the Bay Area, if only temporarily, Europe is preparing for record temperatures.

My powerbook gets pretty hot these triple digit days, and a few days ago the battery died. Or so it seemed. (Heat alone does not make batteries die however.) One of my sons knows a fellow who works at one of the Apple stores, who advised him to zap the pram. It worked, except the little lights on the bottom of the laptop don’t work. I’ll look that up later.

For now, it seems that SF is hotter than the peninsula. Wow. That’s a switch. 95° there, 93° here, but it feels like 100° minimum.

For those who missed it earlier, here’s the egg frying on the back of a Mac laptop. Of course it’s a joke , but these things do get really, really hot.

a) Everybody in the pool (for about 10 days)!
b) Ice cream for breakfast, gelato for lunch, milk shake, smoothies, and granita for dinner
c) Flip-flops compulsory for office wear

Monday night it must have been 95° in the living room. Dinner was steak, salad and baked potato, which meant the oven had been on for at least an hour. It was not a good time to watch Cache, but it had been sitting around for a while. Once started, it was impossible to look away, even at the very last, when the viewer is left waiting for an answer.

Things not usually considered include not getting enough sleep and air-conditioning. What?

On one of these dog days of summer, I’d gladly swap a/c in return for being hungrier.

Smog particles from cars and trucks are the culprits behind storms that seem to occur more frequently during the week, scientists report.

The view from the Lawrence Hall of Science this afternoon.

So far, it’s only in the high 70s, wonderful for humans, disappointing for the tomato plants that experienced a huge growth spurt in the last few days of intense heat.

Looks like I won’t have to fill the tub with crushed ice and eat a gallon of ice cream after all.

A son is in the process of moving, and brought back a box full of Cup o-Noodles, Easy Mac and Kraft Mac ‘n Cheese. I had just read in today’s paper that Anthony Bourdain loves KFC’s macaroni and cheese. So it was on the mind. It has been many, many years since I last opened a box of the Kraft standby.

Imagine my surprise when I peeked into the box and saw what appeared to be either a large insect or a darkened, possibly moldy piece of pasta. (I’ve not been the same since the visit by the varmint in the garage where some of the food is stored.)

Then I noticed this particular box had a Blue’s Clues theme. Hmmm. I can see little kids fighting over the blue pieces.

Despite the temps being close to 100°, I also made coleslaw. Instead of sour cream, I added plain yogurt. Or so I thought. Turned out to be vanilla yogurt, which transformed a perfectly good batch of slaw into a too-sweet, aromatic dish that was not to my taste.

Then the a/c went dead, along with the refrigerator. Which meant a circuit breaker problem that was fairly easy to fix.

The only dish actually palatable was the beef curry with zucchini. Which is why I’m having a large bowl of fudge tracks ice cream right now.

Wait a minute. Anthony Bourdain goes to KFC?

My 50 tomato plants are ecstatic, the breeze is a hot one, and I wish I had stocked up on melons over the weekend.

Before it hits land tomorrow, Alberto may well become the first hurricane of the 2006 season. Parts of Florida expect storm surges of up to 10 ft.

Upon closer examination, scientists found cell-like red structures that could reproduce. Yet, they contained no DNA. Theories abound, including a possible meteor strike into a flock of bats. But blood cells are unable to replicate.

Another idea is based on panspermia, and suggests that microorganisms from space enter our planet via comets now just as they did when life began.

We debated going to the Marin Headlands in the ferocious wind, having been mightily buffeted on our outing to Hawk Hill some time ago. Yesterday, the winds were so strong that I was very grateful for gravity, especially when we stood atop one of the gun emplacements at an old battery.

The tunnels provided the only relief.

The plan was to greet the graduating son with the giant Pooh balloon, which could take up half the space of his doorway.

We didn’t know he was in the shower, unable to hear either the persistent knocking or the doorbell, so there we stood in the torrential downpour. I was forced to use Pooh as an umbrella.

Never use a helium balloon as rain gear, especially Pooh. He became very depressed, unable to rise to the occasion, and turned upside down once we got indoors. Even after a brisk towel-down, he was still unhappy. My son wondered why he clutched a fish in his paw.

It was a diploma.

It seemed to be raining hardest when we were on the road.

Grads with outdoor ceremonies tomorrow are checking the forecast, and parents are rounding up umbrellas. A sprinkle or two can be tolerated but downpours are not acceptable. I can see the rain running off those mortarboards now.

Our Cal grad promises to let us know if there will be a move indoors.

An FDA study indicates that the common supermarket mushroom has the potential to become a major source of Vitamin D. While many of us get our D from milk, a lot of people (me included) can’t tolerate milk.

And if you lived under two months of almost constant rain, as Bay Area residents have done, you need a little something.

By exposing mushrooms to a period of ultraviolet light, researchers say the Vitamin D content rises significantly.

The part where Richard Chamberlain’s character watches pedestrians go by with their umbrellas. Not the second time, when they float by, but stay tuned.

At Target’s parking lot, shoppers were trying to ignore the rain. Grimly. Not a hood or umbrella in sight, just the usual Californians ducking between the sprinkles. It got a little trickier when the torrential downpour hit.

Earlier, I got behind a driver who was hitting his head with his hands. At first I thought he was clapping, but no. Then he switched to just his left hand. Then back to both. He appeared to be talking to someone in the passenger seat. Then it was back to the left hand. I wondered if it was his music, or if he was moving to a really different drummer within. It was a very long light.

Jeff, one of my faithful readers, comments on a previous post:

do we live in seattle? i think we do.

I’ve lived in Seattle. It rained less.

It rained almost every day in March. It has rained every day except one in April . Rain is expected for at least another week.

Can you say ’saturation’?

Still more rain in the forecast.

Only a few sprinkles this afternoon.

The coming storm just might knock all the flowers off.

We got home before it opened up.

Weakly, but there it is. Fleeting as well. I’ve lost count of how many days it has been.

Relentless rain. Dark skies. And now the inevitable mudslides as the hills just. can’t. take. anymore.

Was the groundhog holding an umbrella back in February? We had 25 days of rain last month.

It looks and feels like Seattle.

No surprise there, but instead of ravens, doves, or the various songbirds, we hear the screeching of seagulls.

Jubilant, no doubt, at finding a new and vast area of water that is the valley.

It’s a good thing I ran out again and got most of the lawn fed before the thunder started up. Now the sky has opened up, and the patios are covered with pea-sized hail.

Happy Spring!

It’s being called a storm of the century, leaving thousands homeless, and ruining sugar cane and banana crops.

Meanwhile Cyclone Wati is a possible threat moving in from the Coral Sea.

Another heartstopping moment when I bend down for the hose, and surprise a mother bird hidden in the groundcover ivy. They seem to explode out of the nest.

Despite the seemingly disastrous practice of having a home on the ground, this particular bird (I will look it up in the Sibley soon) is very successful. Their relatives in the garage are possibly smarter. I will have a photo soon, but this calls for vigilance, which calls for spare time.

It has rained for 38 days and 38 nights. Especially last night. Actually, we had three nights of rain in just the seven hours that I was trying to sleep.

The weather has caused some terrible accidents. This is not a region known for blizzards.

First, it’s tax prep time, which always takes at least twice as long as I think. Then too I’m filling in on care for my mom while a sib is on vacation. I’ll be posting more next week, but if we get some snow (it’s more possible this year than most), I’m going out to play.

Oh, and I’m going back on the South Beach diet, so there’ll be lots of agonized accounts of those no-sugar popsicles again. Thanks to the ankle sprain last year, I gained most of the lost weight back.

It rained so much last night I dreamed the house was flooded.

Last night on the way to the store, I passed a palm tree that looked like the ones seen in hurricane photos, fronds all whipped in one direction. I thought it was an oddity till I read how high the winds were.

That explains why the trees were whipping about so furiously last night.

I did venture out to Safeway, which was mostly deserted except for one very ill shopper and a few dazed-looking checkout clerks. The floors in the aisles had store circulars that appeared to have been roiled by gusts. When I commented to one clerk that his station looked well-protected, being far from the exits, he said, ‘Oh no. Whenever one of the doors opens, the wind comes sweeping in all around us.’

I don’t recall winds this strong since we’ve lived here. The windows have been rattling, the lights dimming every few minutes. Flood advisories in many places tonight.

If I have a connection in the morning, I’ll be very surprised.

People had on parkas today.

It’s cold, going to the 30s in places tonight. The mountains around us have snow, and there’s more predicted for the weekend.

It covers an area bigger than the continental U.S., and monitoring scientists say it could either be part of the Dragon storm of 2004 or a brand new one.

Most hurricanes have no lightning. Katrina, Rita, and Emily, three of 2005’s worst storms, did. Scientists are still trying to figure out why.

An eagle nest monitoring organization reports that 80 percent of nests destroyed by hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 have been rebuilt.

Upgraded to category 3, it is expected to hit coastal areas today.

It’s still around, but not threatening land. Weather experts predict it will fade soon.

Yesterday being so spring-like, I planted 100 tulip bulbs, raked redwood, oak tree, and palm debris, replanted the strewn-about garlic bulbs, pulled up weeds, and managed to fill up all the garbage cans, big and small.

Today, my muscles hurt.

The governor announced today that Butte, El Dorado, Lake, Lassen, Marin, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba counties are also in a state of emergency.

Through a steamed-up window, the world is seen in shades of gray.

Both sons gave graphic descriptions of wrecks and worse during dinner (leftovers mostly). At some point, one turned to me and said, ‘Mom, you would have been nervous.’

One admitted that in the parking lot at Boreal, the car iced over in minutes. The other has eaten little but McDonald’s for three days, so I’ll need to detox his system.

At least the rain has stopped for now, and we had a sunset with pink clouds.

Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Napa, Sacramento, Sonoma, and Trinity counties are in need of disaster relief. The governor makes it official this afternoon.

Along Foothill Expressway, the eucalyptus trees took a big hit. Lots of limbs sheared off, most are marked with safety cones.

Errands are done, it is a hot chocolate day for sure. One kid is just now heading home many, many hours away in the snow.

Tropical Storm Zeta began forming Friday morning, and is located near the Azores, with winds of 50 mph. It does not appear to be a threat.

We’re beating that here in Northern California.

It is next to the redwood, and thanks to their collective efforts, the ground below is quite a mess.

Ran several errands and raced home before it started raining again.

Lots of sirens this morning, heavy branches falling on the roof.

One son got home late last night, the other is still on the wrong side of the Interstate 80 mudslide.

With lights continually dimming, we may not have power much longer.

There was a family member in the emergency room for seven hours. One son called to say that he and his friends weren’t going anywhere until the roads at Truckee were open again. The other son had headed to Tahoe with a couple of friends at 5:00 a.m. this morning, and had not been heard from since last night.

I was worried, to say the least.

But all is well. Tests for the family member were clear. One son is probably happily killing Babylonians in his latest new game, along with seven or eight friends, all safely in a hotel room. The other son called to say his cell battery died in the car where they had been stuck ever since turning back at Truckee where hail convinced them to turn back.

The Babylonian son left with a tin of Christmas cookies. I had offered the huge bag of leftover Halloween candy and similar Christmas cookies to the other son, who now sincerely regrets turning down both. He also said it was ’stupid’ of them to leave in such horrendous weather.

I’m surprised we have both, although I did lose the connection for a few hours today. And there’s another storm heading in soon.

Both kids are trying to get to ski areas, but so far, they’re stopped due to road and ski resort closures, rain where there should be snow, flooding where there are roads open, and whiteout conditions in some snow areas. Not to mention the occasional mishap involving a big rig full of cows, then the freeway full of same.

And into a very stormy night.

In extremely blustery, imminently hideous weather. Almost Category 1 winds out there today. Why torture myself with malls when I could be lashing myself to a tree in order to plant the many tulip bulbs before it’s too late?

Because there’s a family birthday in early January, and I’m never organized enough to buy extra presents during Christmas shopping.