Stranger In A Warm Land

Thanks to all for their patience in my responses and posting this week.  There was, of course, an adventure involved.  And thus, the rest of the story...

I had an out of business travel appointment set since the middle of January to a contractor for a project review.  This was part of a larger team.  We would leave on a Monday and return on a Wednesday.  Everything was in place and we were moving along fine.

Around last Saturday or Sunday the weather reports, which had been predicting rain and cold, suddenly began to take a turn for the worst, predicting the potential for freezing weather and ice.  Even by Monday, when we were getting ready to leave, things were still not in alarm mode but the temperature was falling.  

As it turns out, I may have gotten out on one of the last planes to leave New Home.

Our meeting went off without a hitch - but New Home, caught in the midst of an ice storm, did not.  We followed the news, got updates from spouses and coworkers of the low temperatures, building ice, and resulting power losses and falling branches.

All of this, while we continued to "endure" the weather in San Diego.

Our flights home Wednesday were either canceled by Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning; like other refugees we rebooked our flights - and then needed to find a new hotel.  Four of us were stuck in town for another day and headed 5 miles up the road for one more night.  Fortunately we were already all accomplished in working remotely and continued to manage ourselves even though we were a ways from home.

For An Taigh Thoirdhealbheach Beucail, everyone was okay.  School was canceled as was work, and so everyone sheltered in place.  Apparently they lost power Wednesday night which was not restored until Thursday afternoon (doubly fortunately, we have one of those almost illegal gas stoves, so they were able to cook).  Other than the cold and the popping and crashing branches, no serious harm done.

I arrived home Thursday night and thus could not look at the trees until yesterday afternoon.

On the "bright" side, none of our trees split down the middle, but the three major oaks near us all lost more than one branch.  And we, of course, are not the only ones - estimates are around here that up to 90% of certain kinds of trees suffered damage.

There is now a growing tunnel along the streets as the branches stack up on the side of the road.

All of these pictures are from the front.  Yesterday, I was able to get all the branches out and all but one of the fallen branches still in the trees down and cut up.  The last one is within my reach and I should be able to do it today.

If you have never seen ice-encrusted leaves, the picture below is an example:

Hard to see, but the picture below is of the major tree in the backyard.  There is one branch weighting down another one on our side of the fence.  Unfortunately it is much larger than I think I can handle and likely I will have to find someone to do the work (perhaps mysteriously, tree services are currently 60 to 90 days booked out).

A couple of interesting lessons here.  The first is simply that being out when any kind of major event happens - a not great one - is something worth planning for.  Even if it is a regionalized issue, both you and the folks back at home may essentially be "on your own" (so remember to pack extra socks and underwear).  The second, of course, is to accept what you can and cannot control.

After all, I was pretty much a victim of circumstance.