Maybe I’ll set up the charcoal BBQ indoors, to cook AND heat the house at the same time- why hasn’t someone else thought of this?!?

And I will NOT have a fire in my fireplace- unless I finally get around to converting to Zoroastrianism, what with that “religous purpose*” exception to the fireplace ban.

* not to include normal Western religions, of course.

January 3rd, 2008 at 1:15 pm

I took down my lights on Sunday before New Years (yeah yeah, shame on me). So I’m good there. The brew shed is done, so that shouldn’t blow down. I just need to get a couple duraflames and dark chocolate to go with my port.

January 3rd, 2008 at 2:39 pm

I bought a battery-operated TV, which I don’t really need. If there is a power outage, I could listen to my battery-operated radio.

January 3rd, 2008 at 3:01 pm

Videocamera and digital camera are charged. I’m keeping track of statements, radar, news, etc. at my website:

http://www.radiomatthew.com

January 3rd, 2008 at 5:47 pm

I cleaned the gutters, took down the Christmas lights, then most importantly, I turned on the television and set all the pre-sets to the local news and weather channels. I also got out the candles, the Yatzee, and the Boggle. I might wait until tomorrow morning to panic.

January 3rd, 2008 at 6:13 pm

We, along with the rest of the greater Arden area folk by the appearance of the local Bel Air, stocked up on bread and cold cuts for sandwich-palooza in case the power goes out for an extended spell; although, we could use the grill out in the carport area (it’s well-ventilated, so no CO poisoning going on.)

Chadd: “Brew shed?” Doesn’t that need some sort of official inspection by local bloggers?

January 3rd, 2008 at 6:30 pm

My shed is always open to interested folk. rigth now it is too cold for ales, so those are inside the house. I have a lager in there right now, though . I’ll be hosting a brew day sometime in February. Hopefully the weather will be better than today. I’ll keep you posted!

January 4th, 2008 at 8:48 am

Checked on the “Tahoe Park” ( 5 feet from Oak Park) house — since I am living here in Alzheimer’s Central most of the time here in Folsom — and one of the upstairs bedroom windows of our rental home was completely blown out. Roomie had lost power for about 4 hours, but lights were back on when I arrived with deli meats and breads. She’d done what she could, tying and covering up our belongings in the backyard, and retrieved a few that had blown over the fence into to the Church’s Chicken parking lot. But, as she said, “I can only do what I can do…. who can compete with 60 mph winds?”

Since she is in Stage 4 of brain cancer, I have to agree…

January 4th, 2008 at 9:17 pm

OK, so now I don’t feel nearly as bad about our cool chili pepper wreath thing being blown to bits all over our street, or the fact that a hummingbird came looking for his dinner earlier and I’d moved the feeder this morning so it didn’t break & he didn’t come back after I put it back up for him.

January 4th, 2008 at 10:30 pm

guess I picked a bad week to quit sniffing glue.

January 7th, 2008 at 6:37 am

Are they ever going to move that white truck from Q Street in front of the Bee that was totaled by the tree? I feel like leaving a beer on the driver’s seat…

January 8th, 2008 at 5:02 am

I noticed a high level of neighborliness going on in the past several days following the storm.

We live in a neighborhood where about half of the houses were without power for several days, and on any given street, we saw extension cords going across the streets from houses that had power to those that did not — just so these people could take care of some very basic needs.

I’m not sure how willing or accommodating people might be in other cities.

Sharing power, without even giving it a second thought, is just another small example of what makes us a little different (so let’s all download Kumbaya on iTunes & everybody sing.)

January 8th, 2008 at 8:05 am