Lucky

We were out of town, but the nighbors say that even tho the tornado siren didn't go off, the roaring sent them scurrying to huddle in their basements until it was over, and then the power was off and it was dark and no one could tell what they'd lost so they just went back to bed. We have a long narrow lot with the house in the front, a detached garage with an office on the second story, and a thing we call the summerhouse in the far back corner that is like a detached living room. We left a little soft top sports car and the soft top Jeep Wrangler parked in the drive.

Trees were uprooted on our neighbor's side and thrown over onto out property in front of the house, between the garage and the summerhouse, and on all sides of the summerhouse. Not one window or building was damaged. The cars are unscathed. No one was injured. It took a few days for Com-Ed and the City to get the branches off the drive and edge of the street, so for a while our drive was a tunnel and felt sort of bat cavey. And the neighbors are still working on their end of the trees. We will tackle the branches on our side after the backpacking trip and after some things on the lake house get done, and by then the leaves will be dried and some of the water will have left the branches, so it will all be lighter and easier to work with. We are lucky. Very lucky. Nature is a wonderful but powerful thing and we are small in the grand scheme.