Storm

Shutting down. More later.

UPDATE, 9:14 PM: Later...


We sustained some minor damage. Trees down.

(Those are Christmas trees, little prelit numbers whose prelit lights bit the dust before last season. So we redressed them with strings of white LED lights, which we didn't want to use anywhere else because of their intensity, and use them as substitute porch lights. The solar rock lights, visible to the left and right, really don't add much light.)

OK, I was seriously scared for a while there, when the police scanner started lighting up with messages of trees down all over town and my brother called from a bit earlier in the storm's path to tell us to take shelter right away. I began the shutdown/disconnect process on the computer - so naturally it decided that this was the best possible time to install some updates. Six updates later, my mom and I rounded up the cats and ushered them into the cellar. We followed, armed with portable phones, cell phones, emergency lights and emergency radios.

The storm passed quickly, and I took advantage of our regularly scheduled conference call at work to call in and tell them to RUN FOR THEIR LIVES, or at least secure all systems against damage caused by power interruptions.

After the storm had passed almost entirely I drove across town to see if my 100-year-old house was still standing. It was, and nothing seemed amiss...until I drove past it and noticed all sorts of crap on the side of the house. Crap that I recognized. Crap that should have been stored on the back porch on the other side of the house.

I continued past the house and turned at the big pink asbestos-shingled castle that used to be a gift shop that sold all sorts of little figurines and whatnot. Its chimney had collapsed onto a car parked in the street. Police tape warned away anyone who might try to gawk.

I tried to turn onto the alley that runs behind my house so I could swing around to park in front, but somebody had thoughtlessly blocked the alley halfway down with a truck. The nerve.

I came the long way around the block and parked in front of my house. I moved along the side, collecting strewn stuff: a watering jug, a plastic bag, the big can everything had been in...

My Adirondack chairs were tossed around the yard like they had been in an angry giant's way.

The alley behind my house was blocked off with yellow tape because of the tree that had collapsed onto a neighbor's garage, narrowly missing the neighbor's boat and car.

Chunks of shingles were missing from another neighbor's roof.

I got off easy; I just had to walk around and gather up stuff, and then put the assembled bits (which now weighed about, say, thirty pounds) back where they had started from. Other people have extensive repairs ahead of them.

I didn't take pictures of the damage, partly because I didn't feel like engaging in the sort of weather damage porn that is so popular these days, but mostly because I had left my camera in the car. When I got home, while I was trying to determine which recycling containers belonged to which neighbor, I decided to get some pictures of the post-sunset glow, the salmon and pink and gray and purple and green clouds interacting in the blue sky. I think they came out nice.



So now the heat wave is over. Tomorrow I have to mow and weedwhack the lawn across town, and plant my cherry tree and blueberry bushes. Then I have to turn my attention to mowing this lawn.