We are OK, both of the cars are OK . . . the trees: not so much.

Yes, the last image is a large branch collapsed right onto the spot where the cars live. Sunday night, I was just falling asleep when I heard trees starting to break and collapse all around us. I went down, looked out the window, then woke John up. We ran out, frantically chiseled our way into the cars (luckily I had forgotten to put a little ice-scraper back inside my car — it’s been sitting in the kitchen for weeks) and managed to back them up enough to be missed by the tree. Said tree was already sagging down over their roofs — we had to snap off twigs and branch ends to shut the doors — which sounds silly but we were concerned that any added stress could bring the tree down on us. It was both highly surreal and quite entirely terrifying. Just a little adrenaline laced midnight romp, sleet raining down on us freezing on our glasses, eerie orange and blue flashes in the sky as transformers all over town blew (a particularly bizarre lightening show), trees exploding all over the place, scampering back every time the wind came up to avoid potential squashdom. Trying to shift the fallen branches already blocking the end of the driveway enough to back the cars to safety. We finally got back inside after an hour, drenched and frozen to the bone. Then waited to the power to fail — which thankfully our immediate neighborhood was spared.

Post clean-up, phase one. We were saved by a chain saw wielding stranger, who sawed up all the limbs. Which we were trying to do with a little hand saw we use for small pruning jobs. Great guy, wouldn’t even take any money. Living the the snow belt sometimes the happiest sight is someone you don’t even know coming towards you carrying a chain saw.

These piles don’t even represent all the damage. There are still a couple big limbs down (but out of the way) and the one smaller one next to the shed that still attached to the tree. Not to mention that big droopy-on-the-ground branch that may still fall. Which is why the cars are still only part-way up the drive to their spots; if it snaps I don’t want them getting backlashed. The rest of cleaning up can wait; at least until Spring.

And even though my fingers were going numb and frostbite threatened I managed to shoot a couple of really nice texture shots of frozen twig action.

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