Holly's Notes and Condition

5:30 AM - Ferocious Winds and Moon Setting

Monday Oct 13th - Dave jarred awake at 5:30 AM, as we both dashed out to the upper back deck to unhitch and retract our upstairs awning, which Dave had secured so that it can be out, even in moderate wind. This was ferocious, gusts of wind that were snapping at it. Dave had already brought in the downstairs awning, which was bouncing pretty good too, even though its more sheltered. We have an electric extension and retraction motor on both awnings. So, its relatively easy and quick to get them brought in, if the wind picks up. (We didn't opt for the wind sensor, as our neighbor Kari did on her awning, because frankly, the wind sensor rolled her awning in a lot, because we get wind up at 1100 feet at the foothills of Saddleback Mountain.) Dave designed another solution for us: (2) spring loaded rods that are secured at the top of the end of the awning on either side and set into a base mounted onto the deck railing. Very ingenious of him, as usual.
Having been jarred awake, I thought he needed me to help hold the end, so he could unhitch the rod - the wind was howling and the awning was catching like a big sail. No, he wanted me to hit the switch and bring the awning in, as soon as he had a hold of the end to stabilize it. So I turned on the run and with force, smacked my left hip hard on the side of the BBQ - ouch, but I kept moving and hit the switch just inside the door, as I'm watching Dave trying to steady the awning and getting jostled like he's going to get launched off the upper deck. The motor seemed to take forever and then it was in. We waited out that set of gusts and took a moment of less wind and checked the yard. Dave had smacked his right arm hard on the edge of the awning when he had reached up to grab it and the wind sent it down towards him unexpectedly.
I lowered our big American flag down off the flagpole and brought it inside and then Dave unhitched the aluminum flag pole and laid it down flat in the yard. We took the American flag on the short pole out front on the garage, down and brought it inside. We moved some of my potted plants in closer to the house and laid others over on their sides. We watched the moon, almost full setting, orange behind clouds of dust and debris. The wind ripped off a big NE facing branch on our Crepe Myrtle tree in the front yard. On the plus side of things - the new front door held secure and tightly sealed, as the wind pummeled us from the NE, howling down off Saddleback Mountain. If I had to guess I'd put the wind gusts at 60 to 65 mph. We sat down in our chairs and grabbed a bit more sleep. Dave said that when he drove into the office at 7:30 am, the homeowners association gardeners were already out in the neighborhood, clearing the huge fallen branches from the trees that were strewn everywhere. Wow, our gardeners are going to be busy - oh, wait that's Dave and I who are going to be busy. It looks like it 'snowed' leaves - sheering off the leaves on my fruit trees, especially. Oh well, it will clear them of leaves in one wind storm. Dave put a 15 lb bag of rose fertilizer on the top of the spa cover, to keep it from lifting in the wind. It is going to be terrible firefighting weather today.

posted by Holly @ 8:09 AM