Blow

[rejectomorph]

The day turned out rainy and blustery, as expected. In fact the sprinkles began last night, and by this morning the ground had gotten a good soaking. There was steady rain most of the morning, with occasional downpours, but my roof hasn't started leaking yet— at least I'm not smelling the telltale odor of wet newspaper that dampened insulation brings. There were no leaks on the back porch, not even around the skylights, so most likely the rain wasn't heavy enough long enough to get into the attic either. For that I am grateful, but I have to wonder how long my luck will hold. The rainy season could be long, so there will be many opportunities for the attic to get soaked.

The feral cats went stir crazy today, of course. They couldn't get out of the garage or off the back porch without getting wet most of the day, though there were a few periods of mere mist this afternoon. The Tabby who lives mostly in the garage, but visits the back yard at least half a dozen times a day, only came tot he back twice that I noticed. She likes to spend her evenings on the roof, too, but tonight she didn't leave the garage. Meantime, the cat who lives off to the east and only comes here to eat spent almost the entire day on the back porch, reluctantly sharing it with the little black tom cat who he hates. There was considerable hissing and some growling, but no fights. The black cat is surprisingly tolerant of the other's incursion into his territory, and his obnoxious behavior.

While I found the rain quite enjoyable, especially after the long, dry summer, and the air was not so cold as to be unpleasant, the very best thing about the storm so far is that there have been no power outages, despite some pretty stiff winds that might have been expected to bring down a tree or two and some power lines with them. A high wind advisory in is effect until eleven o'clock to night, so it could still happen, but right now the air is quite placid, with no more than an occasional stiff breeze. The trailing edge of the storm might bring more wind, though, so I'm counting no chickens. In fact I think I'll post this and turn off the computer, just in case, even though I haven't yet read all the latest journal updates. No use tempting fate, and the shopping being done I have all day tomorrow to read..

Comments

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

We had heavy winds last night too, and it's still breezy. Also lots of rain. I'm surprised by how frequently our weather here matches up with yours. (This whole West Coast thing is still new to me.) I thought for a while we might lose power, but it didn't happen. That was a relief!

[rejectomorph]

This part of California is between climate zones, so we either get the northwest's weather or we get southern California's weather. San Francisco often gets its own weather, but doesn't share it with us. The central valley sometimes gets its own weather, but we don't want any of that. In the mountains we get hand-me-downs from north and south.

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

You're getting the NW weather this weekend, then! It's chilly, and I like it.

Is Bakersfield in the central valley? I know a woman who came from there. She said it was a very unpleasant place to grow up, sort of backward and right-wing. Well, that's what I carried away from one conversation about it!

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

Just saw this at FB, and it explains so much:

[rejectomorph]

Bakersfield is at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, only about 120 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. It's a strange place. It's the fifth or sixth largest metropolitan area in California (running neck-and-neck with Fresno, farther up the valley) but as it got the biggest part of its growth after downtowns became unpopular it doesn't have much of a center.

Kern County got a lot of refugees from the dust bowl in the 1930s, and their descendants are a pretty conservative lot, but the metro population is now almost half Hispanic, so it's changing. The Oklahoma influence has been strong for a long time, though. Merele Haggard, the famous "Okie from Muskogee," was actually a native of Oildale in Kern County, and one of the progenitors of the Bakersfield sound. But, yes, Bakersfield is like a displaced part of the Bible Belt.

Most of the industry is agriculture related or oil related (two of the oil fields involved in the Teapot Dome scandal of the 1920s are in Kern County.) It's also a sheep ranching region, and attracted a lot of Basques. The county also has a sizable South Asian population, with Sikhs among the larger groups. Bakersfield is actually pretty cosmopolitan, but it's hard to see that when looking at all that undifferentiated suburban sprawl.

The whole Sam Joaquin Valley is fairly poor. In fact a recent proposal by Silicon Valley crackpot millionaire Tim Draper to split California into six states would leave the proposed state of Central California the poorest in the nation, with a per-capita income below that of Mississippi. To add insult to injury, it would bump up against Silicon Valley, the new richest state in the Union, with nearly double the per capita income of Central California (well, it already does bump up against it, of course, but at least with both being part of California Silicon Valley has to help subsidize the region with taxes it pays to the state.)

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

How Interesting! I'm glad I mentioned this. Basques, for goodness' sake. Wonder if they retained any of their difficult language. I'll go follow your links now that I've enthused here. :)

I hope California never does split up. Silicon Valley as a state unto itself is a tantalizing thought, but I've heard the cost of living there is commensurate with, or even higher than, the incomes.

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

P.S. That Bakersfield Sound article is revelatory to me! I had no idea. Thank you for the links!