Another Big Change

One of the things I do in my job is to write the bulletin. There is always a little box in the upper left-hand corner that tells where we are in the liturgical year, and quotes a passage from that day's readings. Sometimes there are other quotes in other places when we need a filler. All last week, I was thinking about the quote in that was in the corner, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God." I probably should have been paying more attention to the quote in the filler that I deleted when a new announcement had to be squeezed into the bulletin, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head."

As many of you know, Friday evening (I can't believe it was just 48 hours ago.) a huge tree fell on our house during a storm. It was the tree on the right in the picture below. You would think the one on the left would have fallen, wouldn't you?

I wish there was something in the picture to give you some perspective, but the birdhouse on the right, which is about 10' high, and you only see about 2/3 of the tree, or maybe only 1/2. 

Here's a shot from the roots up. The house is completely obliterated. 

The tree fell on the front of the house. This is the back of the house. See the part on the right that's sticking out? That's the closet in a bedroom. The window with the air conditioner on the left of the closet is the bedroom window. The big room to the left is the kitchen. If you look closely, you can see the rest of the top of the tree is laying on the other side of the kitchen. It was hanging over the back porch. On the front of the house, opposite the bedroom you can see, is an identical bedroom. This is the room where my granddaughter (who took these pictures) was when the tree hit. Her room (which she had just spent a week painting.) took the brunt of the hit and the force of it knocked her down, but she was otherwise unhurt, thank the Lord. We were in our bedroom, which is on the opposite side of the house, and was unaffected.

Here's the chimney sans tree. There's a similar hole on the ridge of the wing which ends in the kitchen. It's over the dining room.

When I heard the storm coming, I was thinking the wind was really strong and, "Darn it! All the pool toys are in the pool and they're going to blow away. Then BOOM, and total darkness. Tessa came out of her room before I knew the tree had fallen, thank goodness, so I knew right away she was okay. Then water started coming through the living room and dining room ceilings, so we figured we needed to leave immediately. We grabbed a few clothes and left, and after a stop at the house of some neighbors who have been incredibly helpful, we drove to my Mom's, here we still are.

Now the tree is gone (the one on the left, too) and the holes are tarped (just this afternoon) and we await the adjustor tomorrow. I'll write some more soon, but now we are hungry and I'm going to let the insurance company buy me a hamburger.

AMDG

P.S. Some of the pool toys are in the yard, but at least half are still in the pool!