In the wee hours of the morning, somewhere between 3 and 4 am, David and
I were both awakened by a loud bang and realized that the wind was
really howling outside. The sky had been clear when I took Bentley out
for his nightly walk, but sometime after midnight, a big storm rolled in from
the east. Storms almost always come in from the west and the Rio Grande
valley, so this storm was a bit unique.
David thought a tree limb had fallen on the roof because when we turned
the flood lights on in the back yard, we could see the branches of our
big Live Oaks being beaten up by the high winds. Thankfully, as it
turned out, the loud bang we heard was the door in the breezeway. I had
forgotten to shut it before we went to bed.
Thunder and lightning was all around us and as we sat in the family
room, unable to sleep, David saw a flash from the light post across the street.
Our power did not go off, but our cable did, so we were no longer able
to keep up with the weather reports.
I finally decided to go back to bed and get some sleep while David
continued to monitor the storm.
After dawn, he was able to assess the damage. No big limbs were down,
but debris was everywhere. The flash that David saw was a power line
that was down and sitting on the street at the corner. The police arrived and
guarded the live wire until the utility crews arrived. David, being the
sweetheart that he is, ran down to McDonalds and brought back coffee
for the officer. By this time, we were out of power too.
It took most of the day to repair the power line and there were several
police shift changes. The utility crews were busy because 25 lines were
down around our town.
So this morning, I went out to start cleaning up the mess. No one was hurt,
everything is fine although messy. We can deal with that. I have decided to
look upon the clean up effort as a way to get my exercise and a steam bath
at the same time :-) Just think, folks pay good money to go to a gym and
work out and use the sauna, and I am doing it all for free in my yard!
I am keeping a positive spin on it. The storm must have made our local
possum curious because David saw it in the backyard early this morning
when he let Bentley out. Fortunately, David was able to grab Bentley
before he decided to have a little altercation. For a couple of hours,
Bentley did everything he could think of to butter me up and let him
outside again, but I held my ground until the sun was fully up and the
possum had already headed for home.
Bentley has been miffed since then. He will get over it though. We
often have some head butting. Bentley is a typical stubborn terrier and
I am of Swedish descent so we both have our stubborn streaks, but
always make up!
Big Texas Hugs,
Susan and Bentley
