WINDY!!!

It was windy last night. I mean... WINDY!!!

I live here. To be more specific, I live on the left side of the picture (to the north in Washington). And my parents live on the right side (to the south in Oregon).

And it's beautiful. But when the east wind blows through the Gorge it gets a little crazy sometimes.

I thought our roof would blow off last night.

I woke up at 6am due to a very large gust that hit our house like a freight train. Then I went downstairs, where Hubby was napping on the couch (he's a graveyard worker and often naps for a few hours on his nights off) and woke him up by accident. I was thinking that I could come downstairs and sleep a bit more on the couch, but since he was sleeping on the couch I parked myself on the love seat. Have you ever tried to sleep on a love seat? Not that comfy! So eventually I decided to go back upstairs, even though the wind was MUCH louder up there at least I could stretch out.

Sucks even more because last night was the first night in a long time that my shoulder didn't wake me up at 3am. Which is great because I'm not in nearly as much pain as I have been for the past 2+ weeks, but terrible that the stupid wind had to wake me up! I swear I haven't had a full nights sleep in I don't know how long. But I'm supposed to see my chiropractor tomorrow. Sigh.

At some point today I'll head outside and check for damage.

Anyway...

Then I got a call from my mom this morning. Apparently they had a MUCH rougher night than I did! Which isn't surprising when I think about it. I remember being TERRIFIED as a kid when it was windy. The wind would hit the front of the house, right where my bedroom was, and there is this huge 100 year old Hemlock tree in the front yard. I would lie in bed at night and be SO afraid that that big ol' tree would come down right on top of me.

Well...

That tree DID come down last night! Except not onto the house Thank God! It fell parallel to the street and took out all the power lines instead. My parents went to a blue grass concert last night, and according to the neighbors the tree went down just minutes before my parents got home. Somehow it didn't block the street or their driveway, so they just went ahead and parked where they normally do. Well this morning when they woke up they wondered how in the heck they were able to do that because in the daylight they could see that the power lines were dangerously low and their car must have just barely gotten underneath them! Scary!!!

At some point in the night one of the norwegan pine trees that grow along the property line between their house and their neighbor's topped itself and landed on their neighbor's company truck. Hopefully their insurance will cover their damages.

And last, but certainly not least, the smallish/medium sized tree that grows between my parent's house and their detached garage fell, and landed on their house at 3am. My mom said that there was a very loud hollow sounding boom that shook the house, and the cat bolted into their bedroom. So my mom woke up my dad (who can sleep through anything!) and insisted that they both get up and sleep the rest of the night downstairs in the living room because she didn't think they were safe upstairs. SMART THINKING MOM!!!!

Mom slept on the couch and Dad took the recliner, and it wasn't until they woke up this morning that they realized that a tree hit the house! It landed on what used to be their bedroom before they converted the attic into their cushy master suite and shattered the skylight.

So right now, my parents have no electricity (which is ok, they have a wood stove for heat and a gas range for cooking), they have a call into a window replacement company, they have a friend coming over to help cut up some trees, and a call into a roofing company because although they think their roof is ok they're gonna need new gutters on that side of the house. I told her they could come over here if it got too crazy, but they think they need to stay there and take care of stuff.

And here I thought I'd have nothing to write about today! HA!