my day off

At about 1.5 hours before closing the shop last night, we found out that there was a tornado warning, and about 30 seconds after that, the rain and wind and hail began. 20 minutes later, it was gone. Nothing too much exciting after that, and at 8 o'clock when the work day ended, it was calm and warm. Dropping into the park, the signs of the wind and rain could be seen, branches and trees down, rivers of runoff flowing down the roads, but nothing horrible. The ride home was mostly uneventful, but at about 2 miles from home, I could see the damage becoming more concentrated. I got off the bike path to the road, and saw two huge trees blocking the bike path, luckily they were a good 500 feet back from the road, or the road would have been shut down. Getting into town, lights were out, branches ripped off of their mothers, trees toppled. My house was safe, but other houses on the street had branches and trees down. Except for me forgetting to close the window on my side of the bed, everything was good and dry.

Woke up this morning to a phone call that school had been closed, some of the schools had no power or phones. Got the kids up, watched some TV, and then went out on bike to explore the damage. Owen was concerned that some of his neighbors might be in trouble. Down the street, listened as chainsaws cut trees up, watched as lines got put back up on poles, and just got to ride around. One of my friends had some damage to his house, so I decided to see if I could give him any help with the house. Down into the park, backtracked and re-routed because of some downed trees, saw some house damage, and over to TimBob's house, to find him at work. Oh well, did some sight seeing by the waterfalls, saw one of the damaged trees I saw across the path last night get cut down, and back home. The three of us had a great day. Hope you did too.