Really Bringing It Home

Yesterday afternoon at around 4.20pm, we got battered again by another angry storm. It seems tornado activity was indicated on the weather radar/scanner thingies that they use to confirm these things. It didn't touch down though, but oh my giddy aunt... it blew through our little part of Springfield at what I swear was a complete horizontal, taking trees, debris, and branch missiles along with it.

Power, after flickering on and off wildly, went out with a bang... causing me and The Barbara to jump out of our little skins! Hail was the size that hail has no right to be, and after a crazy three to four minutes of if all... I got to go outside. My neighbor's pine tree was down across another neighbor's garage. My garden looked like no one had tended it for months, and the street was littered like some truck had whizzed through there spilling its load of forestry waste! On the corner was a gathering of folk, and we walked over to see if everyone was okay. They were. Just a few folk badly shaken up. Oh... and also a big tree with many big limbs was sitting there across someone's lawn having picked a fight with the overhead power lines and lost!

You know what? Community spirit was fantastic. It reminded me of the old days back home in England, where the elderly mixed freely with the young, offering sage advice and wisdom. There must have been four generations of us all out there, if not five. Many had never met before, even though we've all lived in the same proximity for years.

Power didn't return til this morning at around 10.30am. But Me, Jason and The Barbara sat around our little house in candlelight playing charades, and talking many memories of years gone by. I don't think I could have bought a night like that if I'd have had a million dollars to spend. It was such a feeling of home, and what home actually means. Sometimes, we need reminders of what family and community is all about. It's just a shame that it all too often needs a serious bolt of weather to bring it forth.

And the picture I'm leading with today? Nothing to do with yesterday's storm... but in today's aftermath, I so wish I could be at my quiet out of season beach with only me and the wildlife. The seagull enjoyed many fingers of food that I held out to him that day. It's a genuine pic.

I took a look at our huge pine tree this morning. It's split vertically. It really was a nasty thing that blew through here yesterday, and the big old tree has to be taken down. I don't know how many years it's seen, or how many squirrels and birds are gonna be without their homes once it's gone. I hope a good community spirit will prevail among the wildlife whose trees are gonna be gatecrashed by the displaced cuties that need to rebuild their nests and dreys. I'm hopeful.