August 11, 2007

Me And My Big Mouth

Last night, the First Mate and I went to dinner with old friends of ours from Marriage Encounter, longtime Minnesota residents who moved to Florida a couple of years ago. As Minnesotans often do, we started discussing the weather differences between here and there, and they told us that they live in a part of Florida that rarely gets hit by hurricanes, although they get strong winds from them as they dissipate. I remarked that we hadn't seen any damaging straight-line wind storms here in the Twin Cities since they'd left, knocking on the wood table for luck.

Well, we didn't get it. Mere hours later, around 3:15 this morning, we woke up to a pounding at the house -- a real, honest-to-goodness Midwestern thunderstorm, complete with lightning and torrential winds and rain. Storm alarms rang all through the city, so we went downstairs to the basement and watched the television (and thank goodness we switched away from satellite service, which would have been useless). The storm lasted for a couple of hours, but the worst of it passed in 30 minutes or so. We went to bed, and I wondered what we'd find in the morning.

As you can see, we didn't come through completely unscathed, but this was the worst of it. We lost a few shingles off the roof, too, but the real damage is the loss of this fine tree. It provided shade for our deck and, ironically, some screening for the back of the house during thunderstorms. It'll have to go, as it's split all the way to the trunk.

Still, it could have been worse. Reports have lines down throughout the metro, and word is that Bloomington got hit pretty hard by the storm. My tree will only be one of dozens or hundreds that will have been lost. Power is out to 45,000 homes this morning. Fortunately, we didn't get any tornadoes spawned from it.

Blogging may be a little sparse today as we clean up, and count a few blessings while we're at it. In the future, I think I'll hold my dinner conversation to the Twins.

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Comments (4)

Posted by Dave | August 11, 2007 8:22 AM

Ed,

Sorry about the loss of that beautiful tree. From the photo, it looks like it was one of those beautiful trees that add a lot to a back yard. But as you say, it could have been a lot worse and you're counting your blessings. Good attitude!

Posted by Gary Gross | August 11, 2007 9:08 AM

You'll stick to talking about the Minnesota Twins? You must be a glutton for punishment considering their blowout loss to the Angels last night. LOL

You're better off talking about the Vikings.

Posted by Fight4TheRight | August 11, 2007 10:07 AM

Capt Ed, sorry to hear about the tree - seems ironic that we have waited for what?....about six weeks for some decent rain and then we get a huge thunderstorm!

I estimated here that we got about 1 inch to 1.5 inches of rain yet this morning, not a puddle exists in the entire neighborhood - can you say dry???!!!!

Gary, I have to admit - I have some optimism for the Vikings after watching the first pre-season game last night! (but i'm knocking on wood just the same)

Posted by Tom Shipley | August 11, 2007 11:17 AM

I'm in the Twin Cities this weekend. Though I managed to sleep right through the storm. Had one too many snow cones at the Saints game last night.

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