Oh what a night....

Wow. Wow. Wow. That pretty much sums it up. Last night the storm of the decade blew through Washington State. It started yesterday morning when we were sitting in the office and someone said "is it getting darker outside?". And it just got worse from there. By noon when I ran out to get lunch I had to pick the closest joint, a not so good teriyaki place, for lunch because the wind and the rain were so strong. By the time I left at 4:30pm it had only gotten worse. I made it about 1 1/2 blocks from our building before I was completely drenched - and I was using an umbrella. About 2 blocks later my umbrella blew out of my hands and into the grill of a bus. I waved and retrieved it carefully. By the time I got to Chris's car, below the market, I was completely drenched. We were both sopping wet and knew we didn't have time to go home (there was also a Seahawks game last night so traffic was INSANE) before our trip on the Christmas Ship from Fisherman's Terminal so we stopped at Fred Meyer in Ballard and got new pants and socks. By the time we got to Chinooks at Fisherman's terminal the rain had stopped but the wind was really picking up. Scott and Josie were the only ones that made it to our boat outing. Everyone else was stuck in traffic. Of the 400 passengers scheduled for the Christmas Ship last night only about 150 showed up. It was actually really great for those of us that made it. Lots of seats, leftover boxed meals that needed eating, and no line at the bar. Captain Paul was at the helm and he did an amazing job of jockeying the boat from Fisherman's Terminal to the Locks to the Clark's house and then back through the Locks. The Ballard High School choir was on board for entertainment and they did a great job. All in all it was a really fun trip! When we got home last night we found a fairly large puddle in the basement. Luckily this time it wasn't from our sewer pipe but rather from the huge puddle that had formed in front of the garage door and decided to move into the house. The new rug that my mom recently gave us soaked up most of the water but the poor kitties had to wade to their litter box. I'm sure I'll hear about that from them later. At around 2am our power went out and at this time it remains out. West Seattle was a mess this morning when I rode the bus to work. I even saw a HUGE tree fallen over onto someones house. We were lucky with the little flooding we had. I've heard some horror stories of 4 feet of water in people's basements, skylights blowing off, bricks blowing away, and trees on cars. The storm of 2006 will be one to remember!!!