The Great SF Bay Area Storm of ‘08 (video)
Friday, January 4th, 2008 by Maryam WebsterI’m taking time off and have been enjoying myself with various creative projects. Today, I videoed a hurricane taking place outside my back door. The deluge was widely reported in various formats, but I got to hear of it when spouse banged on bedroom door in the wee hours, informing me that our beloved gazebo (where we host outdoor parties) had folded in upon itself, torn its moorings and was no more. And further, that it was reanimating post-death and crawling up the house, trying to gain the roof and freedom, beyond.
Several pairs of soggy socks, pants, shoes and soaked mackintoshes later, world freedom was secured from this marauding skeleton. The hubby had a scalding shower in the big double steamer bath and battled his way off to work, leaving me on cleanup detail. Thank the gods, we had no leaks or interior drips.
Here is my own local view of the Great San Francisco Bay Storm of Ought-Eight, including a relaxing freshly-recorded rain track for those of you who enjoy such things. There is bliss to be found in being outside, the only human being around, filling lungs full of cold air, the wonderful fresh ozone sweeping the cobwebs out of one’s head. The Mitties provided support by nestling against me when I came back in, the purr-buzzing of their hot, fluffed-out little bodies providing just the right dose of warmth and comfort. Right-click to download if you like…and keep your galoshes handy.
When I first put up my website in 1996, I got a nastygram from the Merriam Webster dictionary people as I too am a prolific writer and produced tons of material that contained words in their book. Imagine the cheek, they said. They desisted after a spell of chatting with me. An almost magical sense of charm and persuasion goes a long way back among the women in my family. 
Speaking of the Dalai Lama, I have received two initiations from His Holiness Tenzing Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. The White Tara longevity empowerment and the Medicine Buddha initiation and blessing for my work in healing. It’s not as cool as you think though - I was one of about five thousand that day to receive these blessings. And he was going along so fast in Tibetan you had a hard time keeping up with the visualizations of a white Buddha above a towering stack of golden Buddhas all holding lotus flowers and so on and so on.
If you like cats and you’re a computer nerd, you might "has" seen the picture at left. (No, it’s not my kitties, 
I am an accomplished frontierswoman. Though you wouldn’t think it to look at me, I can make my own paper and ink, spin, weave, dye woven goods with native plants, make soap in a cast iron cauldron, split logs, make brooms and other tools of wood and local plants, harvest and manage forest foods such as hickory nuts, boil the hickory branches to get three kinds of food: salt, sugar and milk (yep, you can), muddle and sweeten ground roasted acorns for frontier flour, construct a log cabin (well, in theory, I only did it once and that was with a lot of help - those logs are heavy!), grow, harvest and make herbal medicines (plus know how to use them), midwife human and animal babies into the world, make shoes from leather, plants or refuse such as old tires (great for treads), set, manage and harvest a trotline for fish, snares for rabbit and quail, plus skin and dress the meat if called upon to do so (not my favorite thing) and tan the skins. I can build a fire with a bow drill and pine duff or other local tinder, though it takes a long time. I can construct a shelter out of almost any material available, and find food in a forest even in winter. What’s more, I have a hardy spirit and am a survivor, born of a long line of women who persisted, shared their knowledge and endured to win in life.
I’ve not been called on to do any of these frontier tasks in a long time, but the memory still persists. My mother was a great one for recapturing the pioneer spirit and my great grandmother on my father’s side up in the Smoky Mountains of Carolina (they really do look like they’re smoking - see?) thought a girl child should know how to weave and dye and make soap, ink, paper and so on. 
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