The morning after the storm

 

These photos are a little bit out of order.  The first two are from Ember's first morning walk.  We went a little later than we normally do, for a couple of reasons.  

The big one is of course, the after-effects of the storm itself.  We're assessing how much clearing has been done and still needs doing.  But a secondary reason is to try to shift the morning schedule just a tad to make her pre-drop off procedure Friday morning a little easier for me.

We only found the sidewalk blocked in two places.  But branches down all over the place.

After we got home from our walk, I cooked my own breakfast, as normal, then went out to try to clear off the branches from my neighbor to the North's tree, that fell into my yard.  

What I found were members of the homeowners' association that she lives in, who had already taken off the two biggest branches.  I continued to clean up as much as I could of smaller ones.  Thank goodness tomorrow is garbage day.

This photo is the entrance to the park.  I was very proud of Ember.  She did not try to drag off any branches that were "too big to carry", and she did not dawdle chewing on them, either.

Here we have another angle of the park entrance, showing that the runoff channel is actually full of water (most of the time it is dry or nearly so).

This photo shows that the puddle had drained/dried up by morning!  I had to sneak out of the house to take it before our walk.  Ember had not eaten enough of her breakfast to satisfy my own little rule.

My surprise August lilies survived with just one stalk of them being beaten down.

That's it for the photo spread!  

Other storm-related news:  traffic lights were out in major parts of town, making my son and his wife's separate commutes (from two different directions) feel to them like they had survived "a hurricane".  DIL nearly got blown over / taken out by a falling branch, but didn't have much chance but to continue to her car because of how the windows and doors are positioned in her work building.

A roof was reported blown off in a place that I know my son would likely drive right by!

Alicia reported their power out early in the evening.  She reported this morning that they got it back about midnight.

I got a text message from my trainer that he was still without power, so no workout this morning.  I was relieved, in a way.  With the unusual circumstances and my desire to have Ember have a good day Thursday before her spay scheduled for Friday.

While I was picking up fallen twigs, the phone rang.  It was the call from the vet's office confirming the drop off at 7 a.m. and the "fast" for her from 10 p.m. on, but she can have water.  

And I found the message from Alicia saying the indoor water use could resume, with a 60% restoration of the power to the well heads up the road. 

Wish us luck!

Life is good.  Spark on!