Stormy Weather brings Too Many Things to Do

Wow, the last few days have been extreme. I think today is the first time in several days I've sat down for more than a few minutes at a time.

Sunday dawned a pretty day. Hubby declared he was going to put new sewer vent pipes up through the roof as the old ones which were cast are ugly. He was busy with that project most of the afternoon, he picked a bad day for attic work as it was near 90 degrees. I moved some hostas around the flower beds and did some general gardening work, the flower beds are a little shaggy from lack of love last summer. The kids played and got in trouble for turning the water hose on themselves and making a mess but the day was good.

After supper we got both muddy boys bathed and Igor tucked into bed. About 10 minutes later the thunderstorm the 90 degree weather fore shadowed along with the weatherman started blowing in. Sonny Boy was proclaiming " Wow, look how hard it's raining!" as Hubby and I gathered our wits and looked out the big bay window in the dining room we saw the wind BLASTING and heard a loud SNAP and the power started flickering. I declared "basement" and ran up the stairs to get Igor and snatched him from the bed grabbing his glasses as I grabbed him, ran down the stairs and down the basement stairs meeting up with Sonny Boy and Hubby who had managed to find a couple of flashlights along the way. We hung out in the basement about 5 minutes looking out the best you can from the little windows and could see the worst was over. We came out to find a tree across the power lines a few houses down, a large limb of one of our trees down, several bricks from the remaining chimney that had somehow missed our vehicles by only inches and two sections of picket fence blown down. The police soon came and blocked off our street until the power company could get there. We let the kids gawk out the windows for a while and then put them to bed reassuring them that "yes, you can sleep when there is no electricity". Hubby and I then sat on the porch and yelled at the idiots who were going under the police tape to try and electrocute themselves. We did this until the traffic slowed and figured we could let the idiots have it to themselves and went to bed ourselves and heard the power company show up around 12:30 am and get our lights on sometime around 2:00 am.

Monday we arose and got Sonny Boy off to school. Hubby called in to work to tell them we had storm damage and he'd be working from the "north office" for the day. I went out and looked around the yard. Along with the large tree limb we had a bed sheet in the middle of the street and a lawnmower blade in our yard. I found the glass ball from our bent over lightening rod that had slid off the rod and somehow landed in the street gutter without breaking. Soon the morning rain quit, Hubby revved up the chainsaw and we cleaned up the big limb and Igor and I picked up 4 wheelbarrows full of small dead sticks that had blown from the trees. While out picking up the sticks our neighbor came over and got me and showed me a huge split in an elm tree in our yard (the split was only visible from his yard) I went in and called the power company as it threatened the power lines. The power company showed up fairly quickly and evaluated it. Later in the afternoon the neighbor flagged down a power company employee who was driving by and showed him the split which had grown very dangerous in the last few hours. The power company had the city come and block off the road again and Hubby and I perched on the front porch waiting with baited breath every time the wind gusted. The tree trimmers soon showed up and had two bucket trucks working the tree down to an almost stump leaving all the trimmings in our lawn just before dark.

Tuesday arrives and we take Sonny Boy to school and Igor into Children's for an eval by the genetic clinic (more on that later when we have some test results) and got home in the afternoon to fire up the chainsaw again and clean up the mess the tree trimmers left. Our neighbor came over and helped with that mess. The tree trimmers left a quite large topped off tree still that had a large leaning branch. Hubby monkeyed up the tree with a rope and tied it off, neighbor and I pulling on it as he climbed a ladder and cut to keep the limb from hitting neighbor's house. While pulling I lost my footing and landed on my rear on the concrete edge of a flower bed. OUCH, I thought I might have broken something for a short time, thankfully only got a good bruise on my keister.

Even with all of that yard clean up drama we couldn't help but think "man are we lucky" when we got up on Monday morning and saw pictures of Joplin, MO and other midwestern towns that are getting creamed daily with twisters.

Today things have gotten somewhat back to normal. The city came and got the huge pile of limb debris off the curb. We still have a large tree trunk standing in the yard that's got to be dropped. Hubby will have to rent a bigger chainsaw for that as it would just laugh at his little machine. I managed to finally make a dent in the massive pile of laundry only to be felled by a migraine this afternoon.

Things are back to normal.