Seattle Storm

Mid-december there was a big windstorm in the Seattle area.  Lots of people had it pretty bad.  Power out for a week, no heat, and the weather was cold.  Or trees fell through their homes.  Stuff like that.

 

We didn't have power for about 2 days, which sucked while it happened, but seems mild by comparison now.  We didn't really have a good source of backup heat.  We have a fireplace that we hadn't used ever, even though we've been in the house 9 years.  We collected scraps of dead branches and some old rotten logs, and tried our best to bring in some heat.  It made a difference, but damn it was cold.

 

The next day we heard that friends in the next county had power, and invited ourselves to go visit.  Thanks Kevin!  That evening we got power back, and headed home.  The house was a total mess, as we hadn't done any cleaning for 2 days, and there were wood chips everywhere.

 

The next day we heard that some friends were hiding out in Canada, because their home didn't have power yet.  We invited them to come join us, which they did.  They stayed with us for 2 nights, and I really enjoyed having the company.  Then my brother-in-law and his fiance arrived, for the holidays.  A few days later my sister-, mother-, and father-in-law arrived.  We had 10 in the house for a while, wow!  The last of them left on the 31st.  Now the house is pretty quiet, and empty.  The full load of parenting is back on our shoulders, but we're doing OK. 

 

One tree fell in our yard.  It was about 100 ft. tall, but only 50 years old.  Fast-growing, I guess.  The folks I talked to said it was a "theadora", which I've never heard of.  The tree fell leaning up against the neighbor's tree, knocking the top off that tree, which then crashed to the ground with a big thud.  The only real damage was a bit of fencing.

 

We paid a small fortune to get the leaning tree taken down, so it wouldn't fall further and create more damage.  Now our backyard is a big mess, with enormous logs that I can barely move and a deep covering of branches.

 

I'm waiting for insurance stuff to work out, in the hopes that they'll pay for the cleanup.