One of the downsides to having so much old growth trees is that when a storm hits the Northwest US, there are a lot of tree that are uprooted. The winds from last night’s storms approached 75 mph in places. The wind sounded like a freight train to us. And the dog hid by our bed last night, a sure sign we were in for a bad storm. It’s amazing how our German Sheppard can suss out this impending storm again and again.

Our cats on the the other hand, the carefree animals that they are are apparently oblivious to the coming storm. I guess they are okay with it because they are inside cats who have never had to deal with the storms.

So imagine trees like this one, only three to four times larger coming down across power lines and roads in three of the four directions I drove this morning. Fortunately now one was hurt. Light crews could not work last night because of the wind. Work and school places are closed. And some people will be without power for as much as five days. If you don’t have a generator, like we do, you will lose everything in your freezer/fridge.

My brother has a generator that turns on automatically. Mine, I have to start. He said he has half the neighborhood at his house. I have my parents so far. But we’ll see how things go tonight when we are the only one on our street with lights on. Personally I hope that doesn’t happen because the power is restored to our street before then. But only time will tell.

Oh, and I’m thinking my daughter and her family who live in the unit we have downstairs is pleased as punch that they live at our house because they don’t have to worry about heating the house, losing food, and the like. Happy Holidays!