Too Close for Comfort
Looking back, I suppose it could have been worse. It seems like it was just yesterday…….wait a minute…..it WAS just yesterday that all this happened. June 6th, 2006. I know. The sixth month, and sixth day of the sixth year. SIX,SIX, SIX. It was plastered across the front page of the local newspaper. Five thirty that morning, I crawled out of bed to get ready to haul my butt to the fitness center. Outside, I could hear the howling wind, thunder and the heavy downpour on the roof. I peed out the window, oops!, I meant, peeked out the window at the awesome sight of the two huge trees in my front yard, swinging from side to side, whipped by the crosswinds, as rain poured down. At first , it appeared as though the extent of the damage was one, single limb on the ground. I stepped outside (what the hell was I thinking?) and that’s when I saw that a huge section from one of the trees had snapped off and lay in the middle of the street along with another that the neighbor had already dragged over to the side. How they managed to miss crashing down on one of the cars in the driveway is a small miracle in itself. Long story short….instead of the usual morning workout, I was out there in the rain with my handy dandy tree saw, cutting limbs and clearing the street. The devastation left behind after the storm went through is something we’ll remember for a long time. Throughout the neighborhood, trees suffered the wrath of the rain and high winds. Huge limbs littered the yards, whole trees were seen, uprooted and leaning against the front of one house and creating a gaping hole through the roof of another. Not even a mile south, a path of destruction, including huge trees that were decimated, power lines down, rides at the amusement park pulverized, and the roofs of two churches received heavy damages, with sections ripped off by the powerful winds that seemed to have targeted that area. It was indeed a scary reminder of how vulnerable we are against the forces of nature. Crews continue, around the clock, cleaning up debris and working to restore power.
In the past, we had been spared, with the worst of the bad weather, passing through to the south and the north of the metropolitan area. This time it hit just a little to close to home. Whew! Maybe it’s a sign that it’s time to put the FOR SALE sign in the front yard and move………to Florida (No,..too many hurricanes)….or California ( I don’t think so..earthquake country) or Hawaii (sunshine, year around warm weather ……and a prime tsunami target). Hell, I can swim!