STORMS & The Purple Finger Syndrome

Yesterday when I got home I might have had an hour to an hour and a half before a storm -- the meteorologists call these "bow echos" was racing across our state line at 50 m.p.h. so I couldn't do much before it hit. I had just enough time to check my first follower at a sister blog, and that was it. Oh, and found new site "All Things Urban Fantasy" (placed the website over at my Urban Fantasy window, for anyone to check out).

We watched as the wind grew and grew. I watched shingles being pitched from the old barn--not much holding them down, believe me--and small branches being blown across the lawn. . . then Dennis called over to me as he looked out a window and said a large limb had fallen--and this was a big limb--and I watched as the hurricane strength winds blew the thing over once. The winds were clocked in the area at 75ph gusts!

We at one point skittered down the steps of the basement--not all the way, because the basement is pretty nasty. I would not wish my worst enemy stuck down there . . . well depends upon what she/he did, of course.

Things eventually calmed down. We went out to assess the damage. Not that much in our yard, save for that big limb out in the grassy area, did no damage--and luckily our power didn't go off completely.

We jumped in the park truck and went out to check on damage to the park. There wasn't a lot of rain--and luckily there was no hail (some places had reported grapefruit-sized hail!!)

We took the bend and saw a tree completely down along the edge of the drive. I mean it was down from the ground! It looked like someone had taken a chainsaw and simply sawed it below ground. Strange. And no other tree in the area of this one was down, or damaged.

We drove further and found two more whole trees down, just like this one These were 40-foot trees! Broken a foot below the ground as if someone sawed them neatly there.

This morning: Lots of damages reported elsewhere, of course. Someone had taken a video of rotation right above their heads. That was a very brave soul who did take that picture. It could have become a tornado any moment and touched down on them. Must have been one of those tornado cowboys.

Anyway, this morning we went out and began cleaning up. I had to pick my raspberries. This is the time of year when my fingers are permanently dyed purple. Aside from sustaining injuries from the sharp thorns of the canes, I love picking these fruits, almost as much as I love devouring them!

Well, I'm able to get back to work today, at least. Once I blog here and at my other site, Archives--continuing with the memoir "The Writer's House".

Heather posted on my last post with her corrections of my ditsy sentence. I think all I did was cut off the last part, because it was so confusing. Not trusting myself to be able to do anything with it other than cauterize the wound.

Well, hopefully we aren't going to get any more storms, as today is a picture perfect day--but hot and humid--and tomorrow we are to get more rain, possible storms.