a million homes without power

And we got lucky. No power outages, no real leaks ( although we did see a little water in the basement, it actually seemed to be even drier there this morning). Both of our workplaces have power. But it is kind of a ghost town at work. I guess some people decided it would be better to stay home than make their way into work. There has been some flooding and cars stalling out in the water, so depending on where you live, it probably does make sense to stay home.

Just wanted to let you all know we are safe and uninjured!

big storm--worst winds of the season

They are predicting many power outages as a result of the wind/rain. It has been pouring here all day--and from 2pm on, the nat'l weather service is putting out a high wind warning for this area of washington. I really hope we don't get our power cut off, but just in case, we've got duraflame logs! Those won't get us very far, though. I heard that an alarmist email went around that was saying things like make sure you have wood and food and plenty of cash (because credit cards won't work). It makes it sound like we are in for a hurricane or something. I guess the winds might be that bad--but I think they usually make it out to be worse than it is.

I postponed a dinner party I had planned for tonight so that everyone can be home safe before anything gets too bad. Luckily everyone is available for sunday night, so we rescheduled for then. Also luckily, we had not bought the fish yet, so no worries about it not keeping!

bit breezy

To say the least! Last night we had some hard rains and heavy winds. Let me tell you --when I was walking to the car, I had my umbrella completely horizontal to block the rain and wind. My top didn't get too wet, but my pants were clinging to my legs by the time I got to the car. And the wind was so bad that it stopped me in my tracks a couple of times. Of course, since I was holding the umbrella horizontal, I also had a hard time seeing where I was going, so that made the walk a bit slow! ;-) I have one of those automatic umbrellas, and the wind was pushing the umbrella from the undone position almost back to where it is before you open it up!

What a mess! But this morning David and I discovered the tiniest blades of grass sprouting from our muddy backyard where we laid down grass seed. Yea!!! Maybe we'll have some visible green color by the time my family gets here.

snow and ice

Monday we got some snow and hail, and all of it turned to ice on the roads. David and I took a few pictures. It isn't a lot of snow by most people's standards, but it certainly shut down the city yesterday. We are supposed to get more snow tonight.