January 18 - A Wind Storm

A major wind storm hit the sierra with gusts up to 135 mph at the summit. At Emigrant Gap, our building shook from the winds, we woke to a loose roof panel on the screened in porch (Awahnee Room), trash cans and other items not weighted down went down the hill, every tarp off every covered thing in the yard. We faired OK - but our neighbor lost a good section of shingles off his roof and a huge dead cedar fell into the road heading back to the off the grid cabins. So, before we left the cabin for home, we cleared up the mess outside, screwed down the roof panel, picked up our neighbors shingles and put them in their entry way and moved the big dead tree off the road. When we return to the lodge, there could be snow again - so we may not be able to clear up any more of the mess until the snow is gone. Not much snow left at the lodge and we are again in a drought. Hoping for snow tomorrow. In Orinda, we lost roof shingles, branches off our trees filled tons of trash cans, a roof panel came off the tree house and we lost the side tarps on our portable garage. We will be cleaning up from this storm for a while. photos will be added later. The pandemic continues and we have not been able to have visitors at the lodge (just family, and than is feww and far between). And we have a new president and vice president. Hoping for better days.

January 11, 2021 - Christmas has come and gone and a new year has begun

Goodby 2020. We were so glad to see you end. Now to get through the dreaded COVID pandemic and start healing the rift in our country. By the date of this post, you can tell that it is after the January 6 attack on our nation's Capitol Building. A horrific sequence of events was played out on national television. Most of us feared for the well being of our duly elected represenatives, senators and vice-president. Unfortunately, in the melay, 5 people died. One was a police officer trying to protect and serve. Another was a protester, climbing through a broken window to gain access to the Capitol Building interior, reason unknown. There have been many arrests and many calls for a historic second impeachment of our president. It is a black day in American history and we are still embroiled in a huge rift in our nation which, in my mind, will take a long time to heal. I am saddened to see friends and family separating over differences. I am hoping that a thourough investigation will be completed soon and we will be made aware of all who are responsible for this catastrophe. Just before Christmas, Jeremy, Jody and the kids stopped by on their way home from Montana. It was great to see them prior to the holidays. The kids were so excited about their adventurous trip and it was wonderful catching up with our nephew and niece.

Christmas was small (Jim, the girls and me). We invited our neighbor Adrian and his son Adam over for Christmas eve dinner and had planned to spend some time with our neighbors Jim and Lisa on New Years eve until I received a call that one of our extended family had contracted a mild case of COVID. That moved us into quarantine mode (since we had seen her recently) until we figured out the timeline of her visit (with face masks, of course). Our risk was exteremly low in contracting the virus - but we are unwilling to take any risks with our friends and neighbors.

Since then, with the state mostly on stay at home orders, we have been staying at the cabin and the Orinda house, only going out for groceries, gas, small shopping visits, etc. I can't remember the last time Jim got his hair professionally cut and I have been to the doctor, dentist, etc. Christmas brought back fond, and sad memories of our dear dog Quincy. I miss him every day and and still having trouble talking about him even in this post.

This weekend, Jim and Katie finally got to go skiing at Sugar Bowl. We were supposed to also ski today - but plans were changed. Jim has started to work on wiring in the basement (we have one plug down there and a few lights - a real problem with working on projects in winter). I have started working on spackling the windows that needed to be reset with the siding project and finished setting up an antique bookcase/desk in the "girls" room downstairs. I have also been busy setting up and tearing down Christmas.

We are fortunate. We are healthy, we have food on the table and wine in the bar. Our kids are doing ok. We have two homes to shelter in while this pandemic continues. Though we do get cabin fever at both, we have beautiful country around us to enjoy. No photos this time. Happy New Year.