At our house, as well as all of my local family's (Trish, TL & Tony) and I'm sure many of yours, things went dark during the big windstorm Thursday night.Maybe your neigborhood, like mine, looked - or still looks - like one of these pictures I pulled off King 5's website. I know it may be surprising, but I didn't personally snap any pics of our local neigborhood (more on that in a bit).
Anyway, for those of you not currently in the NW that haven't heard about the storm... it got a little drafty here late Thursday.Then it got a more blustery.
And then it blew a tad harder.
And then it started just blowing so hard, you almost thought it could blow the house down.
Well, it may not have blown the house down, but all over the Puget Sound, it certainly blew the tree(s) down! Lots of them right into, and sometimes through, a house. Waking up Friday morning... with no lights, no heat, and a job to get going to I climbed right over the debris from the tree that fell through my garage and... What? I hadn't mentioned that?
Oh, right... that was the 'more in a bit' that I'd mentioned earlier.
Welp-o, just after midnite on Friday, I woke up - startled by something. I wandered out of the bedroom to explore what had caused it. Whatever it was, it had apparently stopped since their wasn't any ongoing noise.
Next thing I know my neighbor was banging on the door. I (still half asleep, I think) answered the door with something like, "What can I do for you?"
"Are you alright?" he asked. "A tree just totaled your garage!"
So, that's what woke me up. It had stopped, that's for sure! It had stopped once the tree finished falling right through the garage roof. The tree, and ancient-looking one that stood just 6 or 8 feet from the garages corner, just couldn't stand the ferocious winds any longer.
That being said... for us at least, all is well (last reports, still no power at the other family members houses either... but at least no trees through the roof). Everyone was safe and sound, however probably without power for quite a while to come. I'll throw some pictures on as soon as I can get ahold of some (my Boss, Jim, and my son, Elijah both snapped some).
Yes... safe and sound, with Dina & I sleeping only 15 feet or so from where it fell. Even the cars; which were parked outside the garage in the driveway, 5 feet away; were spared! Believe that? Dina & I have discussed it, and we certainly felt Dad watching over us on this one that's for sure.
My youngest, Austin, summed it up the way the rest of us have been since... "We are Blessed!!" People tend to look back and forth between you and then the 100+ foot tree rather inquisitively. How can you be 'blessed' when that just happened to your house.
Well, we know that a big chunk of the roof (it was a brand new roof, too!) is gone. And we know that the entire front wall of the garage is about to leave the other 3 walls company, and fall off into the driveway. And we know it must be around 40 or 45 degrees at best in that house.
Yes, e know ALL these things... and we feel blessed!! It missed our children... our real valuables. It missed us in bed, oblivious & asleep. It missed the living area of the house altogether and missed everything of value (not like there's that much of value) in the garage. No need to replace the washer/dryer combo we'd been given, or the foosball table, or the weedeater. All our safe.
How could you feel anything but blessed?
Make no mistake. It's no fun being freezing cold if you wake up during the night. No fun missing the ballgames, or missing out on Christmas movies & specials. Missing out on Dina's home cooking. And a running hot water heater & a washer/dryer combo to keep us and things around us clean. Missing days of seeing Christmas lights in the neighborhood.
But given the possibilities of what could have been... I'll be glad with the outcome & continue to feel, for lack of any better words... "Blessed!"
A guy came down to pull the tree tonight (causing us to miss out on both family Christmas gatherings scheduled for today). That was a bummer, but what can you do? It's not like you plan something like this. Fiscally by the way, you don't ever want to pay to have a tree pulled out of your house. Whatever you'd guess it'd cost is probably wrong... the actual more than doubled my expectation.
We had to evacuate (as did neighbors on each side) while he & his crew did the job. So we headed off to find a hotel to use as home for one nights sleep. We found one... which was no easy task, and settled in for the night.
And for this one night we're warm. Eating warm food, doing laundry, showered, and feeling a little human again... but only for this one night. Tomorrow, we head back into the trenches to tough it out with those still in the neighborhood!
Power is still out, and the power guy on the block today told the neighbor (it's being told at least, 3rd hand so take it with a grain of salt) that it's probably going to be 3-4 weeks for power to be restored on our block.
As now there's only a hole where the tree once was. And a lot of 'firewood' left behind to clean up!
God Bless! Be Safe! Pray Hard!
Johnny:)
Say an extra prayer for us, too... selfish as it may seem, we really want to be able to wake up in our own house on ChristMore morning! It's a tradition we'd like to keep going!