These winds are so violent. At 85 m.p.h, they are reminiscent of a Louisiana hurricane without the rain. I miss the rain...it drowns out the other sounds of a wind storm! I can hear dirt and debris sand blasting my windows. The limbs of my date palm are crashing to the ground with great thuds. What looks like a bed sheet is caught in the power lines up on the corner and snapping. My padlocked garage door lifts up an inch or so and thunks back. Mabel, stress breathing in the hallway, is happy to have an extra set of walls between her and the storm. Every plastic bucket in my yard is blowing...somewhere. And the ever present wood on concrete banging of my fences.
I wonder how on earth I will feel secure leaving my pup at home alone with much shorter fences in a mere two weeks?
Right now, it just feels like the problems keep banging up against my head like the wind in my fences. It's been a really stressful five days.
::A fun trip the bestie and I planned the day after Thanksgiving went to you-know-where in a hand-basket when someone need to hang at her house until they could arrange a ride. My bestie, being the kind, generous soul she is, changed our long planned trip. I took the casserole I had made for the trip over to stash in her extra fridge... and barely made the 3/4 mile trip home!
::My beloved jeep - 13 years old would not shift out of first gear all the way up the hill home. I just kept going, running stop signs, further up the mountain to my mechanic. As suspected, the transmission is out.
::Since I had prayed and put out into the universe all year that both the bestie and I needed newer cars, (and the bestie just got one!), maybe it was time... I spent days on the phone, wheeling and dealing. I'm not a car person. My needs are simple: electric windows (in case Mabel sees a cat), air conditioning (middle aged femalehood is bear on fire!), and a plug for my ipod (I hate commercials!). And it should run... that's it! After days of negotiating, even consulting a professional broker, I just couldn't deal with the added debt. I'm dumbstruck that I could buy a new car (with very little interest) for about the same price as an used one! That's just wrong!
::I'm still in shock that a new tranny is coming just as Los Angeles' exorbitant property taxes are due. I just love how these damn things are due in early December, pretty much guaranteeing I never have a good Christmas. At least I can put the car on a credit card and deal with it in a few months... guaranteeing I won't have a good birthday either!
::There goes another palm limb! I heard a woman was actually hit by a falling tree walking to get groceries tonight!
::Who WALKS to get groceries in an 80 mph wind storm? Housebound carless people, that's who! It's so hard to live in LA without a car! I'm amazed at the things I normally have plenty of that have run out this week!
- I'm down to 7 rolls of toilet paper. I usually have a case. The logical side of me knows that's 3 1/2 weeks. The not so logical side is freaked!
- Every fire alarm in my house started beeping and I only had one 9 volt battery in the house!
- I managed to run out of my favorite acid reducer during the most stressful week in ages.
- OJ, bread...
- And the creek... I've managed to swing a ride here and there but Mabel has seemed grateful for neighborhood walkies.
::In the end, some part of me fears I will never make real money again...that it will always be a hard row to hoe. But, I am somewhat happy about keeping my old beast. It's Mabel's car. She loves that Jeep! They don't make them where the back seat flips up and creates a Mabel Lou seat any more. So many of the vehicles I have looked at have hard plastic and are slanted... my girl would slide all over and not be happy at all. Mabel and the Jeep were made for each other. I just get to visit in their world. It's much nicer there!
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When we had four dogs with us, my hubby did a huge research on cars which has flat seat in the back and it can accommodate four of them and three humans for a ride. It was a hard search and he managed to get a Nissan X-Trail, the back seats can be put down and the whole back seat becomes FLAT.
However, Hana left us three months after she joined the family and Laura followed Hana to the bridge five months later.
With those winds, it is probably better, at least for the day, that you stay safely cuddled in your house.
You sure have had a great start to December.
We are getting those nasty winds today....thank you very much...and we have been warned to stay home.....
Please be safe and hang in there, it might get better....you never know.
Love
Bert
Good decision on the trannie, we think! We wouldn't recognize you at the creek and Bart wouldn't know when to wiggle and whine when you pull up in a new vehicle!!
Hope you survived the night with minimal damage. I have some broken flower pots, but that's it. I think...
Do you feel like you're participating in some intergalactic endurance challenge and nobody told you the rules? And yet here you are, still standing, still in the game. Maybe 2011 is trying to purge all its nasty stuff before the end of the year, so 2012 won't get off to a bad start. In life as in those high winds you're experiencing, sometimes all one can do is hold on and wait it out.
We sure hope the start of a new month brings you a better run.
Our human brother had a wild night there in Glendora. And we hear tonight could be worse. They are glad they still have power.
Good luck with the new tranny.
Woos ~ Phantom, Thunder, Ciara, and Lightning
We are in the middle of "car" shopping (my first car!) and our family has owned a Honda Element before; so that's what Brandon & I will be getting.
Goodness, that is some strong wind! Don't blow away!
Brandon's Raiser
I hope your fortunes take a turn for the better SOON! I'm sending positive thoughts your way.
The wind last week was CRAZY
Stop on by for a visit
Kari
http://dogisgodinreverse.com
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