Toppled Tree a Kick in the Pants & Pain in the Pocket!

EUREKA! House unveiled from tree canopy

Tuesday's tornadic tree-toppling squall put a hurting on my travel plans for a while. The senior of the father/son team, who removed the trunk during the next two days, was of similar girth.
Shaking hands with him to seal the deal was like high-fiving into a catcher's mitt. They done good - but if I'd had my 'druthers, I'd rather not have income tax, auto and house insurance -- and WriteLink Membership -- all come due at the same time.

Very doubtful if I'll be roaming the shingle beaches of Hastings, UK, anytime soon. I'll be lucky to make it to the Hastings (Florida) First Annual Tour de Farms (true story) midway between here and St. Augustine's Ancient City Tourist Trap, this Sunday, to potato-pick in the hamlet of Spuds.(You couldn't make this stuff up!)

The DIY tour is billed as an educational and epicurean experience, designed to lure tourists away from the shore to explore unheralded farmland hidden behind the rows of shoreline condominiums, gated communities and aquifer-consuming golf-courses. Everything from fancy ferns for floral arrangements, to hogs - and barbecues - and cultivated wild-flower seeds to fish-farms, spuds in the ground, hydroponically-raised strawberries and lettuce, vineyards and a spot of plonk, to blueberries, pies and cream.

Looking forward to a quite day in the country. What could possibly go wrong???

Enjoy every moment, while you can...

The dark, vine-wrapped live-oak tree trunk, about three-feet thick, missed the roof - and master-bedroom - by THAT much.

A tornadic storm line which swept through Florida yesterday caused physical and financial damage, but none to my frame and tin-roof 1900AD house nor, miraculously, to anyone inside. No injuries or loss of life for "Breaking News" crews to shed crocodile tears over.

The ancient tree, probably with its roots loosened by recent downpours, keeled over under assault from a powerful squall-line, which produced flooding rains, hail and tornado warnings over several states. The tree's upper trunk plummeted between a clump of spindly palm trees,leaving them unscathed. It tore down the main power-line, ripping it from the stand-pipe and meter-box to leave it live in the soaked grass.

Sprawling branches managed to miss making a mark discovered - yet.

The tenants, their three boys and three dogs were unaware of the tumble down for several hours, assuming from the lack of lights, television and other appliances, there'd been a power outage due to the storm. My phone began ringing moments after their discovery!

So much for writing, editing, marketing, researching, filing, interviewing, transcribing, today. A chance (do you believe in chance?)meeting on the way to the house with an obliging FP&L (Florida Power & Light) meter-reader and a short-cut toll-free call through the labyrinth of button-pushing exercises, conducted by a robotic electronic voice, and a real person who responded with empathy.

The guys who showed up shortly after were amiable and efficient and had the job completed within an hour of arrival. Never thought I'd give kudos to FP&L, with its escalating energy costs and bigger bills, but they were primo!

It was a day of unexpected pluses -- compared to what might have been!