Ike Pays Us A Visit

Kentucky is a long way from Texas, so I didn't think we'd be feeling any effects from Hurricane Ike. I was wrong. Last Sunday, September 14, what remained of the storm swept north of us, and my did the wind blow! Gusts in the area were reported up to 70 miles per hour. We lost power for 2 or 3 hours, and as the trees in our yard were dancing like dervishes, I used the opportunity to tell Wendy about the time John Muir climbed a 100-foot high Douglas fir - atop a high ridge - during a terrific windstorm, lashed himself to the top, and hung up there for hours, whooping with joy and reveling in the power and grandeur of the tempest as the tree was whipped this way and that.

I don't know if anyone in Murray climbed a tree during this Big Blow, but fortunately, we suffered no tree damage in our yard. Some of our friends, though, were not so lucky. We learned that one family had part of a tree fall smack on their truck, while another family we know had a tree crush their garden, and still another had a falling tree smash their playset. There were trees and large branches down all over the city. By afternoon, as we went shopping at the Wee People sale at the university (the biggest used kid's clothing event of the year), all was peaceful and still.

The storm had passed.

As I was driving around our neighborhood later in the day, I snapped a few photos of the zephyr's aftermath: