Simi (valley of the winds) California
New years eve winds. All night long winds shook the house, rattled the windows and whistled (Whistled, I kid you not) through the imperceptible openings between fixed and sliding windows. I tried jamming socks into the gaps to stop the sudden rattling caused by unpredictable gusts. Gusts coming through edges of closed windows shook and swung the venetian blinds. Open doors slammed. I sleep with my head against the windows and the swinging and banging kept me awake so I got up and raised the blinds. Then when the wind gusts hit what I estimated fifty miles an hour and the window itself shook I got worrying about it breaking and shattering down on me and got up and lowered the blinds.
When I got out and looked this morning my shingles are all over the front, side and back yard.
If we get fires in the hills with these winds it will be an unstoppable conflagration. With the number of idiots in the world, I am guessing that this is occurring to a few of them at this moment and they are looking for cigarette lighters right now.
And a section of the fence is down. It just doesn’t look picturesque, exposing as it does the neighbors stash of toys. (I didn’t know he surfed!)
thirty minutes later AND THERE GOES ANOTHER GREAT SHINGLE RIGHT PAST THE WINDOW. And another! argh! and I can hear another one blowing along the roof! These are asbestos shingles, about eight inches by thirty.
wed morning 2 Jan 2008 high winds all night.
Spent the last five minutes picking up my shingles from the neighbors yard, driveway and sidewalk. On the bright side, all the singles that yesterday blew onto the roof next door blew off in the night. Oh, and the plum tree on the south side of the house is now decorated in shingles. and… I found a shingle on the neighbors lawn with a small tree branch driven through it.
wed evening Put the ladder up and walked around on the roof. I’ say that on the north side about a quarter of the shingles are blown off. With a rain storm coming in I’m hoping that the old shingles that the new ones were laid on over are up to the task till i can get a contractor in here.
And now The Californian Arctic Storm Hits: Thursday bought two rolls of clear plastic, twenty by fifty feet long, and spent about two to three hours on the roof with my new commercial quality staple gun. Realized that if I knelt on the stuff i would be on the ground in a quarter of a second. This is a two story house. I am lucky I am writing this. after three hours I was lucky to be able to stagger to the ladder and wimp down from the roof. Knees are raw and I was almost trembling. I can’t do a days work any more. Back got hurting so bad I had to stop and stand up from time to time. And I wished I had begun at the bottom of the slant and not the top. As I got progressively wobblier I also got closer and closer to the edge. Not good planning. I also realized I had forgotten to eat.
Hot shower and went to bed.
Friday, 4 Jan. 2008
It been raining for several hours. We will be alright as long as the wind doesn’t blow. and if we get wind and rain….. well all bets, plus plastic and shingles are off.
Oh; weather man in his highly coifed hair is predicting continued rain and 70 mile an hour winds. hell.
Evening. 9:52 p.m. Rain just picked up from its quiet, continuous patter and is suddenly driven by wind in a spatter against the windows. And there it is again, a sudden pelting of rain against and wind shaking the windows and howling through the cracks ( which cracks don’t exist till the pressure of wind against them forces a gap). I’m not hopeful for the plastic I so carefully stapled onto the roof. Anything above thirty miles an hour is going to rip it right off and send it out into the neighborhood. Perhaps the neighbors will bring it back. I found a three inch pile of my shingles stacked against my gate this morning. Who knows from what distant area they came or with what level of friendly intent.
I guess on the bright side, its too wet for our resident, apparently, idiot arsonists to do much with the hills.
Home ownership changes everything. When I just rented, earthquake, wind, rain and fire were only interesting to me. i remember standing in my “rented hall” surfing the floor and not giving a thought to possible damage during a big one. Then, in those pre-ownership days watching the palm trees whip and bend in a major quake was just curious. I was anxious to get up and see it before it quit.
10:10p.m. we have a drenching down pour here now, coupled with occasional gusts. Cars going by are spraying sheets of water. It’s pretty picturesque (and damn depressing). Guess i will go back to re-reading the Hobbit..
If i could find my big flashlight I would go out in the rain and wind and check the roof, for all the good it would do. i don’t suppose I ever feel more stupid than when I am groping around in the dark looking for a flashlight
Hey, astonishingly found it (the lost flashlight) and checked out the roof. I’m wet but the plastic is still there and the attic is supposedly dry. And that big heavy three battery Mag-Lite is something else. You could stun Oxen with it and its throws a heck of a light.
later
Well, I’m even wetter; glasses all rainy. Some one yelling right out front. I went out with that comforting big baton of a Mag-lite and searched but I guess it was just a yell about how wet rain is. no one in trouble. but you don’t like to take chances. (why do people do that, yell I mean, not take chances. i understand taking chances)
Made it. the storm(s) moved out and the plastic stayed on.