They’re not around here, that’s for darn sure. Maybe they’ve made it to Kansas, though it would be more likely that they’d wind up in PA, the way that wind was whooping it up from the West on Saturday. All of the wind warnings in the world can’t help you much, if the trees do not tip-toe out of the line of fire, so-to-speak. Trees don’t do that very often. Here in the neighborhood, they just kind of turned up their toes–really BIG toes–and came crashing down. I went out and measured the diameter of the behemoth that landed in (mostly) my yard and the front porch.
The lower end checked out at thirty-some inches and even the mid point was about twenty-six inches. I hope that our trusty tree-removal dude (Greg Macek) is able to cut off a clean horizontal slice, so we can set someone to counting the rings. John from next door thinks that his grandfather planted those trees. Lord only knows how long ago that was (John’s my age, if that gives you any clue–old.).
Anyway, I was not even in the house when all hell broke loose here. Janice next door was–next door, that is; she headed for the basement and probably heard and felt the crash. I was in a parking lot in Ravenna, looked up when I heard thunder and saw darkish clouds scudding along and thought to myself, “Whoa! Looks like there might be a storm somewhere around here.” Who knew? The rain and thunder could be heard inside the store, then it quit and I drove home in the sunshine until I got to the corner of Liberty and Water, where there were trucks parked across the intersection waiting to get the downed wires back to the Water & Waste Water plant. And, of course, the wires downed there meant that our end of town was without power–everybody, unless they had a generator. So I turned left, went up to Maple, turned right down Park Ave., and as I looked down the street for my driveway, I thought, “Holy Cow! That’s my house…or what’s left of it.”
Luckily, I guess, the principal damage was to the front porch, which will require major surgery and/or rehabilitation. Only one window was broken on the porch, probably from a chunk of tree bouncing up and taking out one of the casement panes. It’s covered by styrofoam right now.
There was plenty of debris, the roof and gutters were goners. The Porch Kitties were giving me the “fish eye”, since I was clearly responsible for there being wood splinters, shingle remnants and pine branches all over the place. And to top it all off, the power was off and their condos were getting cold. Inside, it was the same story–sorta.There was a light on the computer, the radio was on, the heat was off and one light in the bedroom was on. I figure that this was because of the solar panels on the roof–which were not damaged, insofar as I can tell. I did NOT open the refrigerator until power returned; no sense pushing my luck. There does not appear to be any major damage, a few things off shelves, whether from the house shaking or the cats reacting to the event. Took them awhile to finally come out from wherever they fled to, but there was a crowd on the bed much of the night.
I was totally impressed by the number of people, in the neighborhood and beyond, who stopped in, called around, generally expressed concern that I was still in the land of the living. My insurance agent was Johnny-on-the-spot ( or Jane-on-the-spot, I guess, since it was Caitlyn Ellerhorst-Lawless); she knew who to call for what and even looked up my policy deductible.
Got to tell this whole story to the folks gathered at the GUMC (Garrettsville United Methodist Church), where there was a wake/service for long-time teacher, Helen Manlove…conducted in Amish-fashion, with just candlelight, since the power was still off. Trish Danku sent Shari & Kyle Collins around to check on me–while she was handling the funeral up at the GUMC, even.
Thanks to all. Everyone –or nearly –who heard the news of the tree episode, drove by to rubber–neck and wish me well. My Landscaper Dude, Bob Lavery, stopped by so the wheels could start turning on what will replace the rhododendrons, the lovely little birch tree and all of the other greenery which was wiped out. The clean-up crew really did clean up a lot of the detritus in my lawn and even went over to work at John’s, where the driveway did not survive either; my drive is usable, the garage is accessible. The Lion and the Tin Man and the Scarecrow should be along any day now.
I should have the drive done in yellowbrick.
So…just as a final note, I was looking at my email online on Saturday evening and found some outfit called Home Serve asking me to “Enroll in repair coverage today.”
Ain’t happenin’.
