We had no idea ...

Got up this morning, went to church, began to carry out my plan of 1 week ago to visit the Celtic festival with my daughter and a musician friend. Noticing it was cloudy and windy, I checked the weather. No big deal ... chance of rain 40%, high 88, windy--gusts up to 40 mph, remnants of Hurricane Ike. No problem. I've been through hurricane remnants before. They're pretty much nothin' by the time they get to Ohio. The wind will keep it from feeling so hot. But as the wind continued to increase, we gave the plans a second thought, going, rather, to a nearby restaurant to see how things were panning out before heading across town. Ri and I even walked partway to the restaurant (got picked up by our friend en route, when she saw us). We were beginning to get the feeling that this was not the run-of-the-mill (lol, like u could say that in Ohio) hurricane remnant when on our walk, we saw several tree branches---I mean big limbs---down.

Well, to our surprise, the winds continued to increase further, and the poor little restaurant was getting battered (pardon the pun). The awning in the back tore half away, the awning on the front was picking up and ramming into the ground, the ceiling tiles were lifting, the tent in back totally collapsed, the windows were whistling and groaning, patio tables overturned. The power went off. They had to lock the door to keep it from blowing open and slamming shut. While we never really felt imminent danger, it was entertaining in a slightly worrisome manner.

I took my friends offer to drive us home. Good thing. On the way home, there was tree debris covering the sidewalk--even the road. There was flying or skidding debris that did look dangerous, such as metal chimney tops, street signs. Craziness. Obviously, we decided to forgo the festival.

Once we were home, things looked ok for the most part. We don't have many trees in the yard or much in the way of lawn furniture. The power was out at home, too. The winds continued to increase for another 2 hours. Not knowing what was going on and why the forecast was off by apparently so much (winds were waaaaaay more than 40 mph), we called a few others. Roger's parents had a telephone pole (not just the lines) down in their yard--with a transformer, no less. I called Roger, who was coming back from Dayton, and he said they were playing "dodge the moving barrels" on I-75 and on an exit ramp.

Rog noticed a shingle loosening on our roof and had me hold a ladder while he put some rocks over loosening tiles. Down below, a gust nearly wrenched the ladder from my hand, meanwhile wrenching my back a little. Not too bad.

Just when we were wondering how to "do" dinner, had all the candles and flashlights ready, and opened the windows around 6, the power came back on. From what I understand, we're pretty blessed as both our parents are still out late this evening. Went over and checked on neighbor and mom to make sure she had candles and to get food from her for us to keep in the freezer/refrigerator. Can't get to in-laws with power line still down across their yard. We'll see what the morning brings. No school, that much we know ...

Anyway, seems like we had the "perfect storm," of sorts, as Ike and a cold front merged over our area making things worse than they expected. We had gusts up to about 75 mph and sustained winds at around 40 mph. Who knew? At any rate, the whole 5-hour ordeal gave me a new appreciation of hurricanes and the power God has given mother nature. :) All-in-all, kinda exciting. I love storms. Our elderly neighbor said she hadn't seen anything like this since 1974 when a tornado hit just a few houses down the road and took out a corner of her house.

How has everyone else fared? If you have any pics, I'd be happy to post them. I may try to get a few tomorrow.

Since I don't have any pics of the storm, thought I'd share this one from the Yellowstone trip and a quick funny story:

This pic was a dare: I dared Rog to take it. It's not what you think .... it's a guy. :) And with that I leave you. You're welcome. :D