Involuntary confinement.....

7:55 am - Tuesday - October 31st - GNHS - 47° F, humidity 40%, wind 4 mph out of the north by northeast......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies once again with a forecast high of 79° F.  Nice...no wind, and temps in the 70's....this is that for which we came!  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were boondocking next to Tuttle Creek (Alabama Hills, just south of Lone Pine, CA),.....↴

.....and I mean, right NEXT to Tuttle Creek......↴

Having lived in SoCal for the first 62 years of my life I am well acquainted with Santa Ana winds.  I grew up in Pasadena, CA where they got quite bad at times, but then in 1986 TLE and I moved our family out to Ontario, CA, which is just below Cajon Pass, the gateway to the high desert communities of the Antelope Valley, from which the Santa Anas originate.  I remember all those years growing up hearing the weather forecasters speak of 'winds below the pass', and never quite knew that that meant until 1986, when I realized the pass to which they were referring was Cajon Pass, and now we lived directly below it.  The Santa Anas would blow so hard in Ontario our two story home would shake, just like we were having an earthquake....another one of those things you get used to growing up in SoCal.

Anyway, this most recent edition of the Santa Anas was one of the worst I can remember in many years, and certainly was worse than any of the Santa Anas from last winter here at GNHS.  This one lasted 2.5 days (no wind this morning, thank goodness!), and during that interval we spent 99% of our time indoors while 40+ mph winds howled incessantly outside.  It wasn't until Monday afternoon that I ventured outdoors to do anything of consequence.  During that time I finally finished setting up our sewer line so it will flow properly to the sewer connection, I put a few screws in the fence which borders our site, which the wind had loosened, using the electrically powered Toro blower I blew the accumulated dust, and detritus off the artificial turf, and just generally tried to bring order out of the wind caused chaos on our 'lido deck'.

We lost one of the tire covers off the drivers side of the trailer in the winds, and despite an intensive 'search and rescue' effort on our part it remains in the 'lost' column.  It's okay, though, they were over two years old and showing their age so I'll just order new ones off Amazon.  The Newell wheel covers remained in place, and continue to do their job despite the ferocious winds.

Usually on our days off work we try not to get out of bed until after 7 am.  We're usually awake by then, but just knowing you don't have to get up is enough motivation to stay put, and awaken slowly as the sun slowly crests the Chocolate Mountains to the east.  However, when your bedroom feels like the front car on a rollercoaster, it is hard to stay in bed for long once you are awake.

Due to our 2+ day involuntary confinement there is not much else about which to write, so I will bid you all adieu for another day, and thank you, as always, for stopping by!