Windstorm

I awoke last night to close, frequent lightning, heavy rain and a lot of wind.  When I saw Sheila was awake too, I asked her if the patio umbrella was up or down.  She looked out and said it was down .... down in the yard.  It had blown completely out of its stand and taken out two solar light units as it went.  As the storm progressed, we lost two panels of lattice from the deck.  Then we lost power.  There was no tornado but the straight line wind speeds were between 70 and 80 miles per hour.

Losing power in the middle of the night is not a big deal for most people. You just sleep through it.  I have severe sleep apnea and can only sleep using a cpap machine.  From approximately 2:00 AM on, I awoke every ten to twenty minutes gasping for air, heart racing, chest burning.  It was a bad night.  My BP was up 30 points today.

This morning, I looked out the now open bathroom window and noticed there was way too much light for that time of morning.  So, I got up and looked a little closer.  The huge, ancient locust tree that has shaded our backyard since the house was built in the forties was completely down.  The root ball alone is higher than Sheila's head and the tree itself is spread all the way across our neighbors backyard and into the vacant lot south of that. 

We are waiting to hear from our insurance agent to see if our homeowner's covers tree damage.  I sincerely hope it does since removing the remains of a tree that size could be costly indeed.  Some night.