TIMBER!!!

So it rained the other night.  And the wind blew.  When the wind blew, it blew the tree down from across the street - right into our driveway.  Missed our house by inches.

This is what it looked like from the other side.  Did a number on the sidewalk, too.

Right across the street, blocking traffic.  The blocking of the traffic didn't bother me a bit.  It kept the idiots from flying by trying to beat the light.

See the wire in the lower left corner?  That was one of several that went with the tree.  No lights - no action from Wednesday night until Friday at noon.

We were luckier than a lot of other people in our area.

Our mail carrier had to hand us the mail from the side of the porch; the steps were not easy to get to for two days.

And, of course, we couldn't get out of the driveway either.  Naturally I wanted to get out badly just because I couldn't.  Know what I mean?

The wires that came down with the tree were live. Once the juice was cut off, the city guys came to our rescue to remove the tree so Consumers Power could set to work repairing the lines.

I never expected for everything to move so quickly.  The city dudes (Sam and John) were on the job at 7:30 yesterday morning.  Those two guys worked non-stop until everything was gone.

Then Consumers got to work.  These guys came from everywhere and were busier than you can imagine.  They had to have been pooped too but they were friendly and helpful.  Not a grumpy look or one single curse word was uttered.  That's almost impossible for me to imagine.

I should have gotten an action shot of Sam and John feeding branches into the wood chipper.  I was constantly reminded of the scene from Fargo.

Now they're loading tree parts into the dump truck.

Sam was a master at the wheel.  Watching him pick up the tree stump was fascinating.

That's John on the left and Sam on the right.  I could have kissed them both on the mouth but Petey was right there - watching.

This was at noon.  Noon, I tell ya.  The guys on our block yesterday morning deserve a huge round of applause for the work they did.  Go ahead - start clapping.  I'll wait.

It was inconvenient to be without lights, phone, TV and computer.  It was frustrating to not be able to get out of the driveway but we were fortunate in so many ways.  

First of all, no damage to the house.  Second, it wasn't stinking hot so being without AC or a fan wasn't a hardship.  Third, we live right smack in town so most everything we needed could be gotten via "sneaker power."

And because we live in the city, we had water.  Although, I am little embarrassed to admit that it took me (and Petey) quite a while before we realized that we had hot water because we have a gas hot water heater and not an electric one.  What a couple of dunderheads.

Compared to the catastrophes people in this country have had to endure lately, we got off pretty easy.  At times, it was almost festive; kind of like a block party.  People came by, sat on the porch and chatted.  Took pictures and offered coffee.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to go through the experience again but there were several times I counted my lucky stars, although if you've been reading along, you know I don't really believe in that stuff.  You get the idea, though, right?