The Storm of 08

It's been a few months since I've added something to the B.S FROM J.E. Blog. The last time, I tried to write from my BlackBerry to see if I could mobile blog and it worked. Well, a lot of sh*t has happened since last I've written.....Deb decided to teach summer school for the first time EVER.....We survived a semi tornado.....and my back is still the same - bad. But, life goes on. In two days, Deb will be finished teaching summer school.....The insurance is giving us a good sized amount to get the roof, siding and personal items fixed and replaced.....And, my back is still the same - bad. The day the storm starting, Deb and I were in the garage putting on the new kayak rackswe purchased for the Jeep because we were heading North in two days for a fun packed long weekend of kayaking and kicking back with Steve & Stacey and Mark & Libby at their cabin on the Manistee River. History 'Sugar' Hall was in the garage with us, content with playing with the plastic wrapping that the racks came in. When the first of the hail started hit the house, he stopped dead in his tracks and then hauled ass into the field and wasn't seen again until six hours later. Debbie heard him meowing in the barn across the street as we were walking the road calling for him. It was storming and hailing so badly that I had given him up for dead. As we headed for shelter in the basement, the wind passed the family room door so hard that we thought a freight train was passing the house. I've heard people say who have been in a storm like this or worse, that was the sound the wind made and now I can attest it to be true. It was one scary sound.

Slowly, we are replacing everything that was damaged. All of our landscaping was destroyed in the tornado and my tomato garden that was growing up so nicely was trashed when the tree behind the shed split in two, crashed my fence and fell into the garden. Deb has replaced most of the flowers and shrubs that were destroyed. The flower garden that would normally have taken me a couple of hours to create by my tee boxes, but took me four days because of my back pain, was somewhat saved when a huge tree across the street fell into it and protected it from the hail and high winds. Our glass top patio table that matched all the other deck furniture was picked up and thrown over the deck railing, breaking upon landing and depositing a million pieces of glass into the lawn for me to figure out how to clean up so no one cut their feet. Problem solved: A wet vac, a stool and about eight of being hunched over, which really made my back feel great. The impact was so great, that glass was also thrown across and into the driveway and in the other yard area. Along with that, the roof was ripped to sh*t, some of the siding was torn off and deposited in the neighbor's yard and my picnic table was smashed.

Right after the storm was over, we walked outside to survey the damage and noticed that we were completely blocked in by two huge trees that had fallen. Two pick-up trucks arrived, each on either side of the fallen trees and chain saws began to start up. In a matter of thirty minutes, a path was cleared so we could get out. It was nice to see neighbor helping neighbor in a time of need. People stopping to ask if anyone was hurt and needed medical assistance. Something we see to little of. But, we survived the tornado of 08. The 107 arce bean field next to us and surrounding corn fields were destroyed. It looked like someone grabbed each plant at the bottom of the stalk and slide their hand up, ripping off all the leaves, leaving total devastation in some areas. We came out of it fine, but it could have been worse. I'm just glad that Deb and I were alright and History came out alive. I'd say he's got about one life left and then he will be History.