2007, that is. The storms on the West Coast have been awe inspiring. Among other things. That parking lot in the above photo is where I work. This is how it looked Friday morning. No work that day. Or power. Or phone. Just wind and rain and thunder and lightning and hail. We were almost expecting locusts to swarm and frogs to rain down. Almost.
Our power was out for about three days. The phone for five. Rarely do people here in the sticks lose phone service anymore. Electricity, yes. So this one was a whopper. Magically, we had made plans some time back to go away on Saturday. Good thing we found a road out of here, because many were closed due to trees down. Huge trees. Cypress, Bull Pine, Redwood, Douglas Fir, Eucalyptus. Like that.
We had tickets to see Pharoah Sanders at Yoshi's. A legend, to put it mildly. We stayed near the club, in Japantown. We love that neighborhood. Gastronomically orgasmic. Had a tasty meal at a Hawaiian-style place. We then walked the six blocks to the club. Our table was about ten feet from the man and his saxophone. Anybody that has heard him play knows how excited we were, with our seats. Seeing him was a musical benchmark. He opened with Coltrane's "My Favorite Things". Memories stored deep. What a night.
Which is a good thing, because the next day we dealt with some automotive issues. My beast, (the Volvo) decided to be persnickety. After some ups and downs, we made it home. To our cold, dark house. Got a fire going and about an hour later, lights! You don't miss your water until there's no electricity to fire the pump. Living rurally for the past decade-plus, we are accustomed to just dealing with it. School kids even got an extra day of winter break out of this storm.
Things are getting rather interesting, politically. I think it's odd that many seem to think anyone can fix what ails this country. Not right away. That's expecting a lot of ONE human being who is bound to be influenced by entities we hesitate to wrap our heads around. I am cautiously excited about Obama. He has evoked his god a lot, and he isn't behind an immediate end to the war. Things I don't agree with. If he wins the nomination, I hope he picks Edwards as his running mate. That seems like a bearable ticket. But it will not be the instantaneous fix some people are imagining. This mess will take some time to clean-up. I'm still a Kucinich supporter, despite the fact that he is being rendered powerless by the political system so many continue to trust.
6 comments:
Those storms must be something! Glad you're safe! Record high temps out here in Ohio and supposedly bad storms on the way.
I'm only voting for revolution ;-)
Glad to hear you made it thru the storm! It was a big one, that's for sure! Did you make time for a massage at the Kabuki?
As to the political stuff, I, too, am cautiously optimistic about Obama. He's a good speaker, that's for sure. Our primary is 2/19 and it'll be interesting to see how Washington votes.
Wow, how cool to see PS!
I saw Dexter Gordon at Keystone Korner way back when! ; )
I remember before I left Sausalito for here that whenever a storm came through, we'd always lose power in that town.
Remember when the power grid went out?
Storms are exciting and wonderful ... until they involve trees coming down, that is. Then, yikes, scaaary! Glad you were safe. (hey, you have an electric pump??? Us,too!)
I'm not very savvy on U.S. politicians, but ANYONE who refers to their god too frequently makes me wary; doesn't it just sound a bit like the prelude to an excuse?
Well, I'll be. I'm glad you linked your saxaphonist so I could read up on him. I'm a heathen...I don't know him. In any case, the evening sounds wonderful. How cool you were seated close to your hero. When I was eating in SF for my birthday, Tracy Chapman brushed by my table. Yikes!
Great storm picture - the U. lost power as well on Friday and we were all sent home. A redwood tree top fell off and hit one of 'my' buildings, punching a giant hole right through the redwood decking.
Such a fantastic memory to file away with all your other magical ones! Very happy you got to see such a legend!
I spent part of Monday cutting up two huge limbs that had come down in my back yard during the last round of storms when my lights were out; until then they were frozen and in enough snow I didn't want to get hurt trying to cut them up...
Politically, I'm still afraid to hope, but I see a glimmer of it every now and then!
alan
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