weather

River-Three Photos-Eleven Years

f/6.6, 1/125 sec, at 6.3mm, 50 ISO, on a PENTAX Optio WP

River levels When there is nothing much to blog about why not discus the old standby, the weather.

Here in Calif. we have had a tornado alert in the Bay Area as a large water spout caused notice and was video taped. Then it seems the real deal – a small tornado hit Santa Rosa.   Lots of rain and snow. Car pile ups in the mountains (one large one last I heard ~20 vehicles) and I must mention the flood watches. A flood watch  is in effect for the valley through Sunday.

The rain just keeps coming down.  I am one of those peeps who likes to look at statistics, facts, get the info, and then process it.  Patterns intrigue me.  The radiation finally hit Sacramento not much, just the diluted amount they expected  and my guess as to arrival was only off about half a day.   And the rain is well, raining LOL. I glance at the river levels once in awhile and wonder if (or when) one of levees will fail or be over run. Sounds wacko I am sure but the real measured levels give me a sense of hope – not a false sense of security – I hope tee hee.

Made the ritual trip to the river park off HWY 160. The photos look almost black and white because of the weather.

Here are three photos covering eleven years of the river.

f/6.6, 1/125 sec, at 6.3mm, 50 ISO, on a PENTAX Optio WP

08/25/2005

april 2006

04/19/2006

f/10, 1/60 sec, at 50mm, 200 ISO, on a NIKON D80

03/18/2011

If you look across the river to the far levy you can get an idea of how high the river is right now. My friend Chuck in the far right of the first shot. We used to ride our motorcycles along river road together in the spring and summer. I miss my bikes 🙁

Nimbus, Shasta and Folsom Dams have been releasing water into rivers for over twenty four hours -a lot of water. I think they should have released more sooner instead of holding on to the water.  Water sold to southern Calif is  not called blue gold for no reason. I dunno sometimes I believe the greedily hold the reservoirs full instead of letting some of it head down river before all the river and creeks hit flood watch and warning stages. I do not like wet feet.  Since Shasta dam hit capacity boat launching and fishing ought to be better this year. Hope we get spring this year so I can enjoy before it gets to hot to go out on the lake.

The water was really moving fast this afternoon along river road (Hwy 160) the Sacramento river looked menacing. The water in the parking area crept up 3 inches while we stood there.  The wind was blowing and it was real dang cold. So I snapped a couple shots, watched some branches rush by in the ripples, and headed back home.

Well that is it for the weather – it is RAINING and the river is rising.

Made it to First PE Class

I attended the first PE class yesterday morning. We really did nothing much but hear all about the rules and regulations – most of them came under the DUH category. I think today will be more productive as the instructor will evaluate and set up a program to help reach my goals.

She passed out a sheet to feel out.  One of the fields is to define our goals. Gosh some people took up the whole paragraph. All I could come up with was “improve my mobility and endurance”.

The weather here is crazy windy and lots of rain. It was more of a challenge getting to the class than being in the class yesterday. Yikes! I found my way to the machine to purchase the parking pass and it was broken. I got out my map and headed for another machine only to find the whole parking area surrounded by a chain link fence. After 5 mins of being in a line of vehicles I found a third machine – it ate every other quarter so it took two dollars to get to the one dollar mark and get a freaking pass! Wrong is so many ways.

Once I found parking near the classroom area all was good – stressed out but I got there. I was planning on finding the admin building and purchasing a semester pass but the weather gave me an easy out on that one.

Today I am looking out the window and honestly it is one of those days weather wise that only a ding bat would go out in if they did not have to.  And, gosh I have to.

I do not drive a lot anymore because frankly I get lost and it is not a fun thing to do anymore. I used to love to drive drive drive but now I rather have  someone else do it. Geezz the wind and rain is crazy heck out there. Hope the machines work today.

So maybe more later if the power stays on.

108 is Hot!

3sunOh my gosh, with a official temp for the city at 108 today, and a backyard temp a tad higher, it was HOT!! Especially since it sort of jumped from low 80’s with cool nights to 108 and not so cool nights.

Then as things sometimes go the central A/C went kaput, nothing, no cold air – wah wah wah. Was so hoping it would hang in there at half efficiency till the estimates etc cold be done and hope for a new one was just around the corner.  At least it was keeping the condo at 82-85 degrees.

The good news is that Billy was already on his way here to pick up the Harley (yes, I gave up the dream of riding it again so I gave it to him to sale and raize som need bucks for us all), anyhoo, how lucky it was that he was here.  He took the whole thing apart, all the coils out of the heat coil think upstairs, little wires hanging all over, and stuff I have not a clue what it does. It is all working as best as it will for its age and he has the drip pan? that goes under the coils out and is sealing up all the little holes in it that cause the thing to flood the ceiling downstairs! YEAH so it should hold up till we can get the estimates and a new one.

I believe him when hes says it will all be good tomorrow when he puts it all back together but I am still keeping my fingers crossed 🙂

The windows are open up here and it is still 98 degress up here so I am slowly fading, I got to go get into the air from the portable A/C in the other room before I melt . …