Photos from the storm at SFGate

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED AN URBAN AND SMALL STREAM FLOOD WARNING UNTIL 11 AM

Sometimes the national weather service is a bunch of sissies. They issue warning just for the attention - I'm sure of it. This time, they weren't kidding. There's water all over this deal. It started raining in my dreams and hasn't let up since. Just when I thought it couldn't rain harder, nature stopped being shy about it and unleashed the fury.

me: wow. it's managed to rain harder
chris wetherdeal: yeah! that was cool!

My hatches were not battened down. Two of my three closets leak. One like a High Ranking Bush Administration Official. During the peak, my little tupperware drip pan was filling up about every 15 minutes. The closets aren't alone. The pipe leading from the water heater outside also leaks. And I was half a step away from sand bagging the back door.

Lane didn't fare so well on her way to school either. Intersections were flooded up to the store fronts. She was flooded up to her hips. Retreat was the only option. Thankfully, she's a fine solider with a good eye for the battle field. A lesser woman may have dropped her head and rushed directly back to base camp. Lane kept her head up... Modifying her fallback route to include a stop at Java Supreme for toasty bagels and yummy hot chai tea.

She'll be receiving her green star of thoughtfulness in a ceremony later today.

Justin's review of the Grey Album hits the nail on the proverbial head:

I was instantly in love - mixing cultures that don't otherwise touch, the tender strains of master melodists bent to serve rapid rhythm. Fantastic. Jay-Z I don't know too well; I admired his use of interview and his rhyming flow is tight. I recommended the album to friends on the strength of tracks like December 4, Change Clothes and Brush Your Shoulder Off. Other tracks like 99 problems are a bit of the usual boy's club for me. I've gotten older and spent less time listening to the word bitch. Ultimately, his humble, sad retiring tone, staring into mortality and fate, redeems the less-than-exceptional themes. And hearing the Beatles mixed up underneath is a double-barrel music blast.

I'm not a big Jay-Z fan... he's a technicaly sound rapper, but the subject matter gets old quick. To quote him "I dumbed it down and doubled my fan base" - Fair enough. The thing is, the whole of the Grey Album more than makes up for it's parts. I can't get enough of it. I listen to it on repeat and play it for friends. You should too. Get it before it's gone: Grey Tuesday

...doesn't come at 4:30am. In case there was confusion, "I'm awake because of that second category" refers to older instead of younger.

We now resume you're reguarly scheduled opaque blogging.

Ask anyone, and they'll tell you about sleepless nights. They probably happen often enough that this anyone in question will even tell you about their own little ritual for getting to sleep. It's as common as a cold.

I used to be the same way. Used to, because it stopped. I can remember the exact day. ...But that's not this story. Nothing could be as boring as a story about a good nights sleep. This story is far more salacious - for tonight I can not sleep.

When you're younger, restlessness most often involves anticipation. Your little mind races with possibility. The future is too much to let go. Christmas Eve is the raining king of this sleepless kingdom.

Then you get older. The very nature of which includes gaining a past. On comes sleeplessness due to regret, anxiety, and frustration (watch out for that anxiety. she's a trickster. anxiousness might look like it's all about where you're going, but it couldn't be more about where you've been). There's no clear cut cause winner in this sleepless category.... but it's pretty safe to look in the direction of work or relationships.

Me... I'm awake because of that second category. The details aren't so important (repeat this over and over - that's my ritual (I know I said this story was salacious. It still can be. Fill in the details on your own. You might be amazed at what you come up with (third set of parenthesize))). Let's just say I'm not tossing and turning because I'm frustrated with the way play is going. And leave it at that, before the racing starts again.

At least it's raining.

We have two analog clocks. One big one in the kitchen and a small one in the living room. They both tick... but not at the same time. They're quite possibly the absolute furtherest apart ticks there can be when ticking every second. Even when listening very carefully, there appears to be no audible overlap between the two. Just one rhythmic, stereo, tick tick tick tick......

Add a little rain on the roof and a bit of mysterious heater pinging/clicking in there and you've got something that's really quite soothing.

Maybe enough to get some sleep.

70 years from now, the US Government will give everyone in Afghanistan an acre on the moon^*, in return for the things we've done.

^* I'm not sure mules care for space, their inclusion is harder to predict.

What he did then was to wade into the river and position his bulky scrotum upon its surface so that his testicles were like a couple of pontoons. Next, he leaned forward and gingerly balanced his weight atop this most improbable of boats. Banzai! He gave himself to the current. And the river, high and swift with snowmelt, carried Tanuki downstream. For fifty miles. All the way to Kyoto.

Meet me in Cognito, baby,
In Cognito we'll have nothing to hide
Let's go incognito, honey,
And let the world believe that we've died.

Villa Incognito - Page 13

He in this instance is Tanuki. A badger looking but actually more of a dog like man from the Other World. The World of the Animal Ancestors. I'd also tell you about the Vietnam MIAs, but I haven't gotten than far yet. You can wait.

After 50 years together, these ladies were married on Thursday.

How can you possibly take that away from them?

Tom Robbins (my all time most favoritest author in the whole wide history of bound paper covered in words) released a new book last April. Somehow I completely missed it. Until today that is. Now it's on the way.

Thanks super convenint internet.

When you go on a company ski trip, you're bound to learn a thing or two about your coworkers. ...Such as one of them lives at the corner of Summerglen and Summerglen.

When you've got two people and a map, that's still confusing. When your sitting right at the intersection, it doesn't get any clearer. It shouldn't exist. You begin to doubt you're in the right place. You start to wonder if you're really in Boston. You start to question how you got there after all.

Before you know it you're crying about that cute blonde girl on the high school volley ball team you never talked to. And never will again.

A horn honks. Lifting your head from the drivers snot and tear soggy lap, you see the infinite row of Spanish style American homes before you. It hits you. This is the right place. This is exactly what you came for.

...And you will come again in approximately 30 hours.

You know things are in a bad bad way, when Bill O'Reilly says anything remotely critical of the the Bush administration.

"The anchor of his own show on Fox News said he was sorry he gave the U.S. government the benefit of the doubt that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's weapons program poised an imminent threat, the main reason cited for going to war.

'I was wrong. I am not pleased about it at all and I think all Americans should be concerned about this,' O'Reilly said in an interview with ABC's 'Good Morning America.'"

also see some earlier drawings

One of these is not Tony Pierce. Can you guess which?

Using SnapWeb, I've created a graph of this blog during 2003. Each column is made up of a screen shot of all the given posts during an individual month. This makes it easy to quickly compare overall amounts posted, post lengths, and content types.

As the person that created all that content, it's fascinating. I posted considerably less in July and August - When I was moving into a new place and then Lane moved there too. Image content has increased quite a bit as the year closed out. And on and on.

I'd like to do the same for the remaining years (2001/2002). SnapWeb makes it pretty easy... but it still a time consuming process. It would be great if there was a tool to automate the whole process.

Yesterday it was bright and sunny and as nearly next to warm as you're going to get this time of year. In the morning, I walked a few blocks to the laundrymat at 18th and Guerrero. Sat in the window watching all the morning baked good and coffee crowd go by. Then wandered around Deloris Park a few times, watching folks play tennis and some kids making a movie that involved a giant white inflatable geodesic dome maybe crushing a girl with dreads in a white leotard. I think it was symbolic. I don't know of what. After my laundry was finished, Goldman came by. We headed another few blocks to the Thai Kitchen at 18th and Mission Street. It's a little tiny place that's only big enough for a counter. The food is cheap, fast, and delicious. It's preparation often involves large flames in your vicinity. Belly's full, we wandered over to Goldman's place - stopping off at Valencia Whole Foods to pick up some Yogi Green Chai tea. Once within the comfortable confines of Goldman's sunny living room, we played a bit of Baulder's Gate II and drank tea, until two nice ladies (who also live in the neighborhood) stopped by for a little of the ole chatting and joking. Afterwards (I'm running out of these kinds of words) it was a quick 3 blocks back home to meet up with Lane. Next we were off to 21st and Valencia for a delicious dinner at Spiazzionos... And finally a trip back to Goldman's for some more dungeon crawling.

What more could a boy ask for, really?

posts (makes?) pretty things.