News from Shakes Manor

Well, we’ve got power back! (And internet service—woot!) I spoke to a guy from the power company last night who told me they’re still doing a lot of work in the area, and it looks at the moment like yet another storm is rolling in, so whether I’ll continue to have service is a charming little mystery, but I’ll take what I can get!

Anyway, if I disappear again, you know why…

That’s our front yard. The big hunk of tree lying across it is our neighbor’s, and you can just barely make out that its thickest bit stretches right across his driveway (on the right; it stretched even further across our lawn to the left). It was his power and cable lines that are wrapped up in it, too. He was fixing to start chainsawing the thing apart before the power company extricated his power lines, and I kindly requsted he waited until the lines were moved, as I didn’t want his corpse on my lawn alongside his tree.

You’ll also note that, across the street, those neighbors’ fence has collapsed. I saw a lot of that all over town yesterday, including lots of “tornado fences” (aka hurricane fences) which are meant to withstand this sort of thing. Some had been downed by trees, but some were just blown right over, it seemed. Mama Shakes told me the cross on the top of their church, which is on the other side of town, was blown nearly off the roof, as well.

There are quite a few roofs damanged by trees in the area; as you can see, I live in an older part of town with lots of big, old (beautiful) trees. So we’re very lucky. And, as a town, we’re pretty fortunate, too, as there’s only been one reported death. A guy who was riding a motorcycle in the storm (!!!) had a tree fall on top of him, but he escaped with scratches. Yeesh.

Btw, that red-leafed tree in our yard was blown nearly parallel to the ground as the storm started, and yet it stands, with almost no damage. Hearty little bugger.

Thanks again to everyone who sent their best wishes.