Blow, Ye Winds

This has been a most unusual experience. You must read on to understand my befuddlement.

At the beginning of the week we had a terrible storm. Late in the morning everything turned dark. The wind began to blow... hard.

I watched as the branches on the trees blew around and around. They did not blow straight in one direction but in a circular motion. I watched for signs of a tornado.

Then came the torrential rain. For several minutes it came down in barrels full. I thought I heard hail but it was just the rain hitting so hard.

I expected to lose power but we did not. Thank goodness.

As often happens during a storm our satellite dish service was interrupted. I was not terribly concerned. It always returned to normal eventually. It does not take long most of the time.

After some time passed I could get CNN and Fox News. Nothing else. I waited and nothing changed.

A day passed and I decided to reset the receiver to see if that would correct the problem. It not only did not fix things I no longer had any service at all.

I called the satellite company and spoke to the nicest woman. She tried everything to fix my problem from her end. After much searching she found that some connection between the dish and my house was disconnected. She would send someone out... Monday. It was a week away but the best she could do.

I was prepared for life without any television. I like to watch the news to see what is going on in the world. But this was the week following the awful events in Orlando. I was beginning to feel bombarded by all the information and repeat information. So the television stayed off.

Then the strangest thing happened. A couple of days passed and a few more channels came back. I could watch my ballgames and a few other channels along with the news. Oh joyousness! But the High Definition did not work.

I was still looking forward to the repair crew though. There were a lot of programs that I normally watch that I could not get. All the local channels were gone. That meant no local news.

So I sat and waited for Monday... afternoon.

Last night we were watching the ballgame. (We lost... bad.) It was night time but it grew even darker than a normal night would be. I watched as the winds grew stronger and stronger.

Every now and then We heard small things roll across the roof. Once we even heard a crashing noise and some clanging sounds.

The wind was not as strong as from the first storm but it was still blowing harder than I feel comfortable with.

I read a weather warning on the computer that said that any animal including a human outside WILL BE HURT. It is not a warning that I have seen before.

We lost power off and on for several hours. It was never off for more than a minute but it was annoying.

When I went to bed I noticed the porch light for the neighbors was on. He works the night shift and she leaves the light on so he can see to get safely in the house if it is still dark when he comes home.

I realized that I could not see the porch light as clearly as I usually do. There was a fallen tree branch partially blocking the view.

I called my son from his room and asked him if we should go check on the neighbor and her daughter. He looked closely and said that the branch had not hit their house. It was late so we decided they were okay and we would not bother them.

This morning when I woke up I looked out the window. Holy Cow!

The branch that fell was a big one. It fell toward our house. It took out most of a crab apple tree in our back yard. It hit the wood stove enclosure behind the house and knocked the chimney off. That was the clanging noise we heard.

The fallen branch missed our house by only a couple of feet. It is a big one. Most of the back yard is full of tree branch. We were lucky.

There are branches down all over town. None as big as this one but there are a lot of them.

The neighbor burns wood so he can use the branch this winter. Something good came of it. And it did not land on any houses.

We decided to see if there was any news of weather on the television. I halfway expected no television again.

WE HAVE TOTAL TELEVISION RECEPTION! Our HD is back. The local channels have returned. All the programs I have scheduled to record are once again scheduled to record. Can you believe it?

It sort of reminds me of Gilligan's Island. Someone accidentally gets hit in the head and has amnesia. His memory does not return until another blow to the head.

In my case one storm took my TV. The next one gave it back. No one can tell me that life is not stranger than fiction.