The One with the Wind Storm

I've been MIA cuz of the terrible, horrible, nasty Santa Ana Winds that swept through our town and left it looking like a warzone. Our power is back on but our internet and cable are still out, so the power might as well not even be on haha. But thanks to extremely awesome modern technology I am using my phone as a wifi hot spot just so I can blog. That's how much I love blogging :)

I used to be afraid of the wind. Click on that link to read about how, when, why, etc. Let's just say, my fears that I thought I had squandered and squelched came back in all their mighty fury Wednesday night. Chris was trying to calm me down but it was really hard when I could barely hear him over the howling winds. We brought Fox in with us because I was afraid the lone palm tree in our front yard would blow over and land on his room. He wasn't sleeping very well between us though so we set up his pack'n'play in the living room where he slept like a baby the rest of the night, straight through the raging and noisy winds. Oh to be young and unaware.

We woke up Thursday morning, powerless, tired, and in awe at the disaster all around us. This is our front yard. It actually doesn't look too bad, just a few palm tree fronds and a smattering of leaves and debris.

In the back parking lot a few of our neighbor's screens had flown right off their sill.

I took a walk around the block to assess the damage and this is what I saw through my lense.

The Great Palm Tree Massacre of November 2011.

Finding beauty in all the sorrow: pretty and colorful leaves.

Our poor neighbors were trapped because they couldn't exit their driveway - a massive tree had blocked them in.

It's sad seeing all these trees that are decades older than most of us meet a sudden and tragic end.

The culprit of our power loss:

Luckily people were right on it sawing it apart and fixing the demolished and fallen lines.

I needed to run a few errands and just had to get out of my cold and dark apartment. The worst of it wasn't even in our neighborhood! Palm trees literally popped off their tops! I've never seen anything like this before!

So sad. I hope they have good insurance.

I spy a car completely entombed by a pine tree.

It's going to be awhile before everything gets back to normal. We really need to start growing and expanding our emergency supplies and food storage. Who knows when the next disaster could strike. I'm so glad that nothing more than our power/cable/internet went out. Counting our blessings.