As I mentioned in my previous post, we have been affected quite a bit by a strong storm that hit Tuesday afternoon.  The clean up has been quite difficult, this morning my muscles begged me to stop lifted heavy tree branches.  Luckily, my dear friend Lynette had already planned to have Ariel and Racecar at her house for the day yesterday as it was supposed to be a working day for me, cause you know, I have a job.  Apparently.  But, instead of working on my new job, I picked up sticks.  And limbs.  And branches and leaves.  It worked out wonderfully that the kids were taken care of so Brian could turn into a lumberjack and I could spend my day bending over.  We live in a new subdivision, only the houses in the outskirts of the subdivision have trees in their backyards.  We live in the outskirts.  The trees were one of the reasons why I loved this property so much.  They are tall, beautiful oak trees.  During the summer they create amazing shade and beauty, but during the fall they lose more leaves than we Brian can keep
up with. 

Just last Thursday I had two tree services come to our house to give estimates trimming back the trees severely and also removing one tree entirely.  And if you are wondering if this whole post is going to be about trees…I’m wondering that myself.  I was going to post about Racecar pooping, so this post could go anywhere.  Anyway, the tree services.  They came out and one guy gave me a great estimate, right at where I expected to pay, and would even lower the price if we paid with cash.  One of those guys.  The other guy, who was totally legitimate gave me an estimate of twice as much as the shady guy.  All I can say is, thank goodness for shady guys.

Unfortunately, none of the trees that were supposed to be removed by the tree service sometime next week, were taken down by the 70 mph winds, not even a single branch.  Just our neighbor’s trees wound up in our yard.  And getting a tree service now??  Would be like getting Ariel to listen to me the first time I ask her to do something.  Because there are HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of trees uprooted and sitting on people’s homes and car across the area.  Which, apparently, is more important than us losing some shade.

We are still miles away from being done with the clean up.  No way the kids could play outside because every step you take, you step on 10 sticks in 10 sizes and shapes.  It’s a danger zone, I tell you.

I was home when the storm hit, I was actually watching the storm very closely, I knew there was severe weather to the south of us and that there was a strong storm coming in our direction. I don’t think anyone (myself or The Weather Channel, we’re friends, you know) knew how strong the storm was becoming that was approaching us.  Ariel and Racecar were napping, I was actually working on my new job, like a good girl.  (and maybe indulging in one too many of my fave chocolate snacks)  I heard the wind, and saw flying objects (leaves) everywhere outside my front window, I check out the back and saw the trees bending over in the most unnatural fashion and heard and saw sticks and things pounding on my back wall and windows.  And it was getting stronger.  The wind picked up again and we lost power.  I ran for a flashlight, grabbed Ariel out of bed, and then Racecar and we went downstairs.  During the time I was grabbing my children, I saw one tree snap in the backyard.

It was over quickly, but very scary.  For someone so prepared for strong storms, I was very
unprepared.  We finally came upstairs and I saw the kid’s playhouse in the street in front of our house, broken into pieces.  Ten minutes prior it was sitting peacefully in our backyard.

At the same time I was gathering my children, a man traveling on a two line highway, one mile from my house, was killed when a tree felt on his car.  That story has haunted me, not just because it was so close to my home, but because it blows my mind that he was there at that very moment that a tree felt directly on the cab of his pickup truck.  Had he gone slower or faster or woke up 30 seconds later that morning, he could have escaped his death.  He was seventy years old.

We are still having glitches in our power.  In the middle of the night last night our power went out for about two hours.  Of course, Ariel woke up screaming because, you know, it was dark.  At two in the morning. Then Racecar heard her and started screaming because, you know, Ariel was screaming, but overall, it was a peaceful night. 

Which was just what we needed.

P.S.  Melinda Dolittle?  Seriously?