Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Every day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the thirtieth day of the month is "Depression."
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I had quite a plan in place for Saturday morning. There was a free yoga class being offered at the Farmer's Market, so I was going to do that, go to the market, and then go to a local orchard to pick blueberries (they have a limited season and you can only pick on Saturdays and Wednesdays). But I didn't actually get to do any of that.
Friday night we had quite a storm come through town. We were without electricity for about fourteen hours, trees all over the neighborhood came down, and the energy company was dealing with downed wires and getting us our electricity back was not a high priority.
Hannah and I saw a lot of crazy things on our walk Saturday morning.
This tree missed the house! Very fortunate, although I think there's going to have to be some work done on the gutters and shingles and possibly the roof.
The people with the poor pitbulls lost their trampoline.
This tree took down some lines and blocked the street.
And look what it did to the sidewalk!
So I spent the morning in the yard trying to clean up the big things. Dr. BB headed out to try to find a grocery store that was open because everything in the fridge was a total loss. Four hours! Four hours is how long you get before it all falls apart with refrigeration. We had just been to the store on Wednesday night, so it was depressing to see all of our fresh produce and dairy go straight into the bin, but it is what it is.
But we're alive and safe and while there is a tree leaning dangerously toward our house, hopefully the roots will hang on until we can get a tree removal service out here. If we have another big storm between now and then, I place even money on the tree destroying our house.
Did you actually get do something fun on Saturday morning? Tell me about it so I can live vicariously through you.
My condolences. Your photos show so much damage. That storm was something else, indeed. I'm glad you're safe, have my fingers crossed the leaning tree doesn't fall, and hope the next predicted storm doesn't show up. Stay safe
ReplyDeleteThe tree guy came today and said they should be able to get to it this week, so fingers crossed it makes it without destroying our house!
DeleteWow! I'm glad you and your family are safe, as well as your home. Losing all your fresh food is a Sadness, and I abhor having to ever waste food, but in this case, I know you're counting it as a sort of Win considering all that you could have lost.
ReplyDeleteIf Misery loves company, I'll tell you that yesterday morning, my husband crunched up the rear end of my car. He was backing out of the garage and forgot he left the old riding mower parked in the drive. He refuses to use the backup camera, so...sigh. We're at the stage of Not Mentioning It/Pretending It Didn't Happen.
Hate that stage.
Ugh! I HATE when you mess things up and it's your fault. Ugh. When I was young, I backed up our pickup truck into our camper. I just didn't see it behind me in the dark when I got home from work. That was...a disaster. I'm sorry about your car.
DeleteThat was major. We did alright. Our real biggie was last year.
ReplyDeleteYes, you guys did get walloped last year! I'm hoping this is the worst we'll ever see.
DeleteEngie--Gosh, those pictures look like a catastrophe. I like how Nance has termed your losing the fresh food "a Sadness." I'm glad you escaped the crisis yourselves--perhaps you could count the food as an offering to the universe.
ReplyDeleteYour pictures made me twitch, because we just had our roof repaired this year... years after the original storm damage and I don't want to go through it ever again. Unlikely, I suppose--but I can wish.
It really was a crisis. I was impressed with the way our town stepped up to help people who really needed help.
DeleteOur roof held strong! I'm sorry I brought up bad memories for you, though. Roof repairs are so exhausting (and expensive!).
YIKES!!! How did Hannah react to all of the storm damage? I can imagine that having random trees down everywhere was probably concerning.
ReplyDeleteLast summer a large tree branch came down on our roof after a storm. In the end it was fine and we got a new roof out of the deal, but it was a weird experience.
Hannah was So. Fine. about all the downed trees. She just went on her morning like it was nothing no big deal. Unexpected, but a welcome development!
DeleteOMG. This is so scary. So many downed trees! And losing a whole fridge worth of food is DEEPLY depressing. Very glad that you are all okay, and your house is unaffected.
ReplyDeleteI will say that the full fridge loss is a Sadness (TM Nance), but at least it's only two of us. We don't have groceries for a family of eight for a month or anything. Our stock-up trip will be just like a regular trip to the store, I think. It's an EXTRA trip to the store for the month, but it could have been so much worse!
DeleteOh my god! How awful. So much damage!
ReplyDeleteUgh, when our freezer died last year I did all I could to save things but there was so much that had to be thrown out, and it felt like such a sad waste. I feel you! But what can you do?
I had a great morning on Saturday - my son and I went biking and it was so much fun.
Oh, yay! I'm glad you had fun biking. It's great to hear that you're exploring your new home!
DeleteIt is so frightening and demoralizing realizing how at the mercy of the forces of nature we are, how we feel so safe inside a house and yet it's really only the thinnest of barriers.
ReplyDeleteI have been cooking for camping, and after our double tornado warning Friday we had a blast of cool yesterday, so I was I was happy.
It IS crazy to think about how unprepared we are if there's a real emergency. Oh, well. We made it out of this one relatively unscathed and fingers crossed there won't be a storm like this again!
DeleteThis is scary! Was Hannah scared on the walk? I know she doesn't like new and unusual things.
ReplyDeleteUgh, four hours? That's not very long! Although the stuff in the freezer must have been fine. I'm disappointed you didn't get to go blueberry picking- I hope you can reschedule it. And I hope that tree stays away from your house.
I bet this won't surprise you, but we threw out everything in the freezer, too. It probably would have been fine if we'd had a full freezer, but the only thing in there were frozen chicken breasts for Hannah, a mostly empty pint of ice cream, some popsicles that had clearly melted and refrozen, and a couple of freezer bags of corn. It all got tossed because my husband is the king of food safety. Oh, well.
DeleteOh Engie, I'm so sorry. I'm glad you were unharmed, but how scary and also such a heartache to throw out food. The weather has been so crazy lately and it's...unsettling. We've been so fortunate to miss both the fires and floods in NS this summer, but both disasters hit the SAME spots in the province.
ReplyDeleteHoping the tree gets taken care of quickly (without so much as a scratch on the house) and that you find some great sales to offset the extra grocery trip <3
Sending hugs, my friend!
We were so lucky! Some people in our town are still without power, so I'm definitely counting our blessings. Hopefully the tree will come down SOON because my husband and I both suspect the leaning is becoming stronger each day!
DeleteWow! This looks like a pretty damaging storm, and I'm glad your home was spared (aside from the listing tree). All those downed trees and power lines (which can be SO dangerous!) is awful to see. These pictures remind me of what things look like around me when we have a hurricane (except we usually catch the outer fringes of the storm, not its full wrath, so we're always very lucky!) - I'm hoping we can somehow make it through hurricane season unscathed. 4 months to go!
ReplyDeleteYes, there's a lot of debate about whether or not it was an actual tornado, so comparing it to a hurricane is pretty apt. The downed power lines were really scary on our Saturday morning walk, but I have to give to the power company that the workers had most of the downed lines up off the ground by Saturday afternoon. Fingers crossed that the hurricanes avoid you altogether!
DeleteGee, that is a heap of damage around your neighbourhood. I hope you can get the dangerous tree sorted soon. Bad timing for your shopping.
ReplyDeleteI mean, we shop every week, so I guess if we have a storm that knocks out power, it's going to ruin a fair amount of food on any day unless it's the day we go to the store! It's our own fault, I suppose.
DeleteSo, I am late and I am reading posts in reverse thanks to Feedly. WOW. I am glad you and your family are safe. ❤️
ReplyDeleteThank you! It's all settling down now and I'm grateful for that.
DeleteHoly moley that was quite the storm! My MIL had a strong storm come through mid-week. It uprooted her neighbors tree which fell on 2 cars parked in their driveway. Phil went out there on Sunday to cup up some of the branches that fell but luckily she didn't have much damage. They had straight line winds. I am glad you guys are safe! I would have expected a fridge to keep things cold for more than 4 hours!! That is a painful experience to throw food away!
ReplyDeleteFour hours is the key. Food drops into the zone where bacteria breed after that. Our power went out around 10pm and my husband actually stayed downstairs until about 2 just to see if the power would come back on in time to save the fridge. It did not!
DeleteI'm glad your MIL didn't have any structural damage. These types of storms are a good reminder that humans are no match for Mother Nature.
Holy Mackerel! I'm so sorry this happened, but also happy it wasn't worse. That tree could have easily gone the other way INTO your home. :( Praying things clean up quickly.
ReplyDeleteBTW: Fourteen hours without power is kind of a big deal and you made it through!
I was asleep for most of those 14 hours, so it didn't seem too bad! I'm also glad it wasn't worse for us, but many people in our own had it much worse, so we're doing our best to help them out.
DeleteFour hours?! That's it? I had no idea! Of course, my mind went straight to the food ;) I am glad you are all okay! My Saturday morning was spent at the Farmer's Market. I hope you get to go and get some blueberries next time!
ReplyDeleteOnly four hours! I think a lot of people take more chances with food safety than we do, but I wouldn't trust anything that was in the fridge without power longer than that!
DeleteThe last day for blueberry picking is Saturday and I'm going to go there NO MATTER WHAT happens. (Famous last words, right?)
Oh my, that looks a lot like the storms we had earlier this year here in California. Lots of fallen trees. I am so glad your guys are ok.
ReplyDeleteYes, I was thinking of you as I wandered around on Saturday morning looking at the damage!
DeleteOh, man, Fort A was hit a lot harder than we were around here. So scary. I'm just glad you are okay, Dr. BB is okay, and Hannah and Zelda are okay, despite the loss of food (A Sadness, indeed). Whew. Did your sirens go off?
ReplyDeleteI'm lucky in that my apt building is on a hill, but water did come in the parking garage and get one end thoroughly wet. They had the usual flash floods at Midvale & University, too. That intersection is the WORST. I almost got stuck in a flash flood there my first year here.