Friday, September 11, 2009


You Never Know What Will Hit You...

So we've kept on the quiet side (mainly because I think I'm still in a bit of shock!), but last week - during a particularly bad freak windstorm - we had a large (3 foot + diameter) oak tree fall on the living room area of our house...and by living room, I mean above my head (I was sitting on my couch at the time!!). The oak tree that sits between the Solarium and the deck cracked in half during this wind storm, and the top half hit the roof, and then slid down and crashed into the Solarium, almost completely obliterating it. I will never forget how LOUD it was! It sounded like a bomb exploding on the roof! I remember thinking, in the half-second before it hit the house, "Geez, that's probably 50 mile per hour wind! I hope the tree doesn't drop a branch on the roof!" And then WHAM! Some days, I wonder who I've pissed off...this tree incident was preceded by me slicing my finger open with a very sharp serrated kitchen knife (still haven't healed from that), as well as grating off another (tip of my) finger - same hand. Try preparing breakfast for guests when you're down to three working fingers!! Anywho, with the tree, the damage could have been a heck of a lot worse, so we were actually lucky. Because of the structure of our house, our roof is very strong, and the force of this enormous tree only cracked one roof joist (it's a three foot long crack though...pretty impressive!). The metal roof is completely messed up, and we will need to tear the entire roof off of that side of the house...and the Solarium will pretty much be entirely replaced. The tree crashed through the Solarium roof, broke the top windows, and completely bent the metal structure in and back. I'm actually secretly pleased that the Solarium will most likely be replaced...thankfully, we have amazing home insurance, and are completely covered! The remainder of the tree, as well as three others near the house, are going to be removed this Monday & Tuesday. The truly ironic part is that we had been planning to have these trees removed this month!!! I guess the oak just beat me to the punch...har de har har.

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