Yes, that’s a downed tree in the park next to our house. It was a beautiful old live oak that gave ample shade to the picnic table by the bridge across the creek. Now it is wood for fireplaces and toothpicks.
We had a tornado. It never touched down. The funnel cloud never touched the ground. It was high enough in the air to spare practically all the houses in the North Dallas suburbs. It was not kind to trees, however. We lost the live oak’s top section that defends the house’s western front side. The severed tree section fell on the sidewalk to our front door rather than bashing the roof, so we were incredibly lucky. Everybody in our neighborhood lost at least tree branches if not whole trees. Everybody was lucky too on damage to their homes.
The freaky, scary almost tornado did manage to flood the floors in our house with downhill runoff from above us. It hit us with high winds a little after 4 o’clock in the morning on Monday, May 27th. The lights almost went out that day, but decided not to drown us in darkness too. I thought it was the end of the line until the wind died down and we could think about what happened next.
So, Tuesday my family got on a plane for a vacation to the US Virgin Islands. My wife, still teaching at age… oops, not making that mistake… had well-earned that vacation, and the damage was not so bad that it couldn’t wait until they got back. The dog and I stayed home. She has doggy breast cancer and is dying. I can’t travel on airplanes due to arthritis. So, we planned a quiet week at home.
I began work on this colored-pencil drawing to see how well I could still do completing it without AI help due to arthritis, glaucoma, and gradual oncoming color blindness. And while I was working on that, the lights went out on Thursday morning. Storm damage was having its delayed joke effect. Blackout to thirty houses in our neighborhood. And work crews had to add us to the end of a long list of electrical repairs, some of which were probably in hospitals or fire stations. So, it turned out to be a four-day vacation from having electricity. I spent one night in the dark house with the heat from no air conditioning, no working refrigerator or microwave to provide food, and no air purifier to protect my breathing parts from pollen and mold. I quickly learned to spend the nights in my car with the engine running and the air conditioning on. (Outdoors, of course, not committing carbon monoxide suicide in a garage.)
During the blackout, I didn’t merely sit in my car with the air conditioner on. On Thursday I went to see the Ryan Reynolds movie IF. It was great. I also drew a lot more on my colored-pencil project above. My AI Mirror app is on my phone, so I turned my finished art project into a polished piece you see the best version of above. Then, on Friday, I tried going to a movie again. Nope. Car accident on the access road to the Interstate. I side-swiped a working van. Minor damage to both vehicles. A policeman had to come and make an accident report. I called my insurance agent and learned I would owe 900 dollars to repair both vehicles. So, I returned to a dark house fully stressed and depressed and thoroughly something-else-essed to stew in my own misery in the dark.
I read half of a Nicholas Sparks novel called The Return and drew the new picture Paffooney you see above And then, miraculously the lights returned Saturday evening. So, I got a night’s sleep with the air purifier. Then Sunday… the lights went out again. No explanation from Oncor or Direct Energy. And I went from depressed to super-depressed.
My WordPress streak of consecutive days of posting ended at 274 because of this blackout. I had an expensive accident where I was at fault, probably due to stress because of this blackout. I lost sleep. I got to hear the local Vatos Locos of the Hispanic street gang that decided to protect our block during the dark night as they played Chicano Rap Music loudly at the mouth of the alley to warn away anyone who might try to loot dark houses in their proclaimed territory.
Thankfully, the lights were fully repaired and back on by Sunday evening… throughout the DFW Metroplex. And that’s my storm story for this week.
Catch a Falling Star 