So, how is the weather shaping up on the left coast there? It was even mentioned on NPR this morning...

Nasty.

There's not a ton of rain, at least in SF proper, but the wind is rather out of control. I'm a little worried about my windows; they were rattling and whistling enough that they sounded like they might break.

Sounds almost like some of our mild hurricanes where we have greater wind than rain problems. Stay safe.

I'm thrilled with the weather here, but mostly just because we've gone back into the double digits.

I don't normally work from home but I'm doing it today. Though I'll have to venture up 101 soonish to check out another apartment for my parents. This one's in your neighborhood, occhi.

Rain's pounding down, wind is roaring, and my landlord's car tents are flapping like giant sails.

I still haven't been able to coax Crosbie outside even for long enough to pee.

My power's been out since 6 a.m. Sidewalks and gutters are flooded. I can't even count the number of trees that are down. The tree directly across the schoolyard from me -- a 60-foot pine -- broke in half. I saw it happen.

Most of town is without power. I finally found a cafe/bar that still has juice and wireless. It's really crowded -- lots of people who were on the interstate and couldn't get to where they were going. PG&E won't even provide estimates on when the power will come back on. My grocery store is sold out of firewood, so I'm going to try the hardware store. It's 58 degrees inside the house.

I'll be sitting in this bar for the rest of the day if anyone needs me.

(My business trip to the mountains was canceled, thank god. Sure am glad I'm not there.)

(thanks for checking in pup. I was going to post a "how's mudpuppie" thread.)

Oh, forgot to mention that the door to the chicken coop blew off during the night. Like, off. So I spent part of the morning out there in the wind and the rain replacing the hinges. Poor hens were huddled inside, not really understanding why they were getting wet inside their coop.

The storm took longer to get to SLO than forecast, but it's here now, and it's fierce. The power went out for about a half-hour, but came back before the heaviest rain hit. Whew. My biggest (but probably unnecessary) concern is a group of mobile homes located up the hill from my location which could (theoretically) be loosened from their anchorings by wind or erosion and become mobile in my direction. But nothing has moved yet, and I'm high, dry and heated with gas.

One very weird online sideline about the storm I'm going to post later, if I'm connected...

They're closing the office early. Yay!

Though it seems like the rain and wind have mostly calmed down. I guess they just don't want people to have to drive home in the dark if the roads are flooded. Which is nice of them.

(Tangerine, if you want any info on the neighborhood, let me know!)

Oh, forgot to mention that the door to the chicken coop blew off during the night. Like, off. So I spent part of the morning out there in the wind and the rain replacing the hinges.

BP's mental image:

≡ Click to see image ≡

There wasn't any flooding on the way, nor did I encounter any accidents or other obstructions, but for some reason southbound traffic was moving at a walking pace, and it took hours to get back home from seeing the prospective apartment.

(Occhiblu, the place is by far the nicest I've seen yet. It's a few blocks north and east of you. The move-in date's later than they want, but they're welcome to camp out with me as long as they need to and if they can make that work, I think they should take it. I'd love to know more about the neighborhood, but aside from grocery store locations, which I can probably get from Yelp anyway, most of my questions are troublingly vague and difficult to answer without supernatural powers, such as Will they have fun? and Will they be happy there?)

Will they have fun? and Will they be happy there?

Do they like fog? :-)

My only major complaint about the area is the lack of immediate walking neighborhood-iness of it. But the Haight is close, and if they're used to having a car, I doubt it'd be a big deal.

And the opening of Faletti/DeLessio has greatly improved the grocery situation, which is good, because the change of Albertsons to Lucky was a major nose dive.

The neighborhood association also has some good info on the area.