My cyber friend annointed asked how close I was to all the rain on the West Coast.  How can I put this ... SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE!  Friday afternoon, my boys and I finished stacking wood just outside our front door (makes it easy to get to for our woodstove).  The boys grumbled and I said, "Would you prefer to wait and do this in the rain?"  An hour later, it started to rain and continued until Saturday at sunset, when the sun came out briefly.  The rain began again and that night, I woke up at 2:00 am to a blast of wind hitting the house.  This continued until this morning (Tues.) about 5:00 a.m.  It was too quiet and the silence startled me awake.  The wind here just blows me away (oh, man, I really didn't plan that pun!)  It comes up from the bay, roars up the street, slams into the south side of the house, wraps around to the right and hits the north side.  I just don't understand it.  I really didn't listen to weather reports and the Sunday paper hadn't reported it yet so I just figured it was another storm.  After a couple of days of constant wind and sideways rain, sometimes literally sheets of rain, I started to feel like Laura Ingalls Wilder in her book, The Long Winter.  You get used to the wind and then, when it finally dies down, it seems weird.  I actually like to hear the wind and rain at night - except when it sounds like a freight train is hitting the house, followed by a dozen people throwing buckets of water at the windows - that kind of noise isn't very restful.  My kids started to feel housebound yesterday, my oldest was moping around.  He wanted to go outside, so we waited for a lull in the rain and he and his brother went out to play in the wind.  It reminded me of when I was a kid, playing in the Santa Ana winds that blew in Southern California.  Except it was dry where I grew up, rain was something we prayed for.  It's really funny to watch the leaves on the trees blow up higher and higher in the sky.  We could barely get the deck (southwest-facing) door open.  The kids were leaning into the wind and they were worn out when they came in.  The rain finally stopped about 1:00 today, and the sun came out for about an hour at 4:00.  We headed out to drop off our ballots (You did vote today, right?)  When we pulled out of the driveway, we could see water still flowing down our street.  Now, that's a lot of water.  I heard of lots of road closures and landslides locally, and down the coast.  Tonight was my belly dancing class and I headed down Hwy 101 at 7:00 pm.  Drove over the bridge crossing the bay and things looked funny.  In fact, there was nothing to see but blackness and headlights.  That part of the county was blacked out.  Lightning flashed in the distant south.  The dance studio is about 11 miles away and I accidently drove passed the studio because it was so dark.  Just as I made a U-turn to go back, the lights came back on.  Hooray!  Fortunately for us dancers, the lights remained on and we had a great class.  Got home and the rain started again but still no wind since this a.m.  You know, when I was growing up, I didn't think too much about the weather, except when it was foggy or the rare rain shower that would keep us from going to the beach.  Here, the weather is a big part of each day.  We plan things according to the weather.  We do go out when it rains but when we get storms like this, we try to only go out when necessary, like if we run out of Dove chocolate.  (You think I'm kidding?)  Small wonder my 8 yo Alec wants to be a meteorologist at times, checking the weather report and the barometer and reporting to me.  The weather is definitely one of those things that reminds you in a big way that God is in control, that He made our earth and we need to respect and honor that.  And thank you Lord for a house on a hill and not in a flood zone!