Tree Goes Down

Here is a photo Patsy took of the tree crashing on our house last night. That's my office/sun room on the side. H. and I could not sleep after we went to bed. We moved down from Patsy and Andy's upstairs guest room to the living room floor, farther away from the trees. The winds were still howling fiercely. Mother Nature with a vengeance.

I had been invited for one night on a press trip for bloggers, to the Housewares Show in Chicago, sponsored by Hoover. Ironically, it's Chicago that's called the Windy City, right? So I am here; H. said it was fine to go, and it is good for my work, my writing assignments. I flew from Newark at 8:37 A.M. I will be home tomorrow night. If home means H., Fig and Sug, not a shaky yellow house like something out of my worst kindergarten dreams after watching "The Wizard of Oz."

I wanted to blog about Chicago, but now I feel too shaken up. The whole thing is so scary.

I look forward to a hot bath in a nice hotel tub later tonight. And what a shame--I had spent AN HOUR scrubbing our bathroom from bottom to top last night, and now who knows how long till our house is ours again?

We are so grateful that none of us got hurt. The lighting fixture in the upstairs hallway shattered to the ground, and if one of us--especially someone smaller, like Fig, Margaret, Sugar or Punch--had been underneath it, the injuries could have been bad.

Counting our blessings.