Sure it's fun, until someone gets hurt....

....or loses their internet. But, as you can see, it's back up again. Whew. Of course we still don't have phone service, thank goodness for cell phones. And there's no way to get in or out of, well, just about anywhere in northern California, Susanville being no exception.

These storms are certainly one for the record books. It's rained. For days and days and days. The kind of rain you hear hammering on the roof without stop. The kind of rain where one wonders if it's safe to sleep on the side of the house with the overhanging big trees, which might decide to uproot in the saturated soil, or simply drop a soaking wet branch the size of a small canoe on top of the roof.

This morning I heard the rain stop. Finally fell asleep for a few hours of deep sleep. Woke up to take the puppy out to pee, opened the front door and.... holy crap. On top of the rain, there was now about 3-4 inches of snow on everything. Do you know how fast and furious it has to snow so as not to melt on top of that much wet ground!? Bare feet on rainsoaked ground I can do. Bare feet in snow, not so much. So I pulled on my boots, the not-really-boots-suede-things. The "snow" soaked straight through. But poor puppy did her thing and we went back inside.

I turned on the t.v. (knock on wood) and discovered all the stations carrying news about mud slides, flooding, road closures, high winds, and more rain and snow in the forecast. Somehow I feel I've stumbled through the wardrobe into Narnia, where anything can happen.

The local river had been making the news all over the region as it was nearing flood stage. I decided to take the Subie out before Jeff had to use it to get to work and see what was up, or rather, how far up the river truly was. Me and half the town. It was pretty dramatic, the river was, eyeballing it, about ten to twenty feet higher then it typical flows even in the springtime at it's highest. Very dramatic and a bit frightening. I took photos, which I'd post here for all to see, if the stupid blogspot would let me post photos, which it won't, so I can't. Sigh.

Geeze! Now the wind has suddenly come out of nowhere and there's something pelting the ground, although it's coming in sideways. It's not white enough to be snow and not soft enough to be rain. I think it's ice.

Oh, and in case my internet service goes bye-bye again, let me just say - Happy New Year! Stay warm, stay dry, stay sober if you're driving.