In December of 2006 it seemed to have rained long enough to float an arc. The ground was saturated, everything was wet and soggy. December 15th, the wind started to blow, it wasn’t just blowing, it was the beginning of the storm of my life, I would say the storm of the century, but I don’t know that to be true. Anyway, the wind blew all night, we could hear limbs hitting the house I was afraid that they would come through the skylights, by 9 p.m. our yard was littered with debris. I was really scared, and the dogs were freaking out, they didn’t want to go to bed, they barked and whined, you know when the animals get upset that something bad is going to happen. And it did, at around 2 a.m. we heard a whoosh, followed by a crash. I jumped from my bed and looked out the window, the neighbors’ tree had fallen and landed on both of our cars, the power had gone out, and the street was in complete darkness. We grabbed the flashlight and the dogs and went down to the garage and blew up an air mattress to sleep on, I wasn’t going to spend another minute in the upstairs bedroom with the threat of something landing on us. We settled in for what was only going to be a cold and restless night, when I heard voices. I assumed that it was the Power Company coming to look at my downed lines, it wasn’t it was the neighbor coming up to check the damage. It was his tree that fell on our cars, it fell through the front of his house ran the full length of his house, up the hill, across both of our cars, and the top was lying on our doorstep.
When the sun came up, we wandered outside to take a good look at the damage, it was amazing how something of that size could just fall over, it took the better part of two days to clean up all the damage. Both of our cars were totaled, but our house had minimal damage, and fortunately nobody got hurt. Sometimes the neighbors son sleeps in the room that the tree fell through, but it just happened that night he was in his room. Its times like these that remind me that things can always be worse.
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| Cars under the tree, my room is above the red car |
I was asked at a job interview once if I felt like I was lucky. I don’t think I’m lucky, but I feel like I’m very fortunate, I suppose those words could be considered interchangeable, but in my mind they are different. Luck has to do with superstition, rabbit’s feet and potions. We weren’t lucky that the tree didn’t land on us while we slept, we were fortunate. I’m fortunate to have my health, and my family, and my job. Those things have nothing to do with luck.
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| View from my bedroom, the bed is right behind me |
