Storm stories

I woke up to lightening and thunder last night.  I usually try to ignore the late-night storms, pull the covers over my head and go back to sleep.  But this one got my attention.  I could hear the wind rattling the windows.  And then I heard another big gust of wind, and my bed shook.  Seriously.  So I figured that was a sign that I should head for the basement.

The tornado sirens weren't blaring, which was a good sign.  But, boy, was the wind blowing.  I tried to turn on the TV to see the weather report, but then the power briefly went out.  After the wind died down and I felt safe the worst was over, I went back up to bed.  The clock read 2:45 a.m.  Ugh!

I woke up at 8:30 a.m. and took a camera on my Sunday morning run.  I was disappointed to see my garden flattened to the ground.  A few of the glads were snapped off.

My favorite coneflower and a pepper plant were horizontal.

But then when I checked out the rest of the neighborhood.  I realized how lucky we were not to have any branches -- or tree limbs -- in our yard.

Trees were snapped in half.  One of my neighbors was hosing off big blobs of mud stuck to the siding of her house.  I saw trees on top of houses and on top of vans.  And, creepily, I had to avoid stepping on a few dead birds that must have got shaken from the trees.  Yikes.

Yep, that tree fell on top of a house.  Like I said, we were lucky.  Now the sun is out, and there is absolutely no breeze outside.  It's amazing how peaceful nature is after a storm.