The Day After

Boy I must say the power of the wind is incredible.  In this photo the front veranda roof is sitting on top of the back veranda roof.  What you do not see in this picture is that all of the supports went with it.  There were 4x4s on the house roof and under these metal panels are all of the 2x4's and other supports.  I found a pier block at my back fence.  It was at least 300ft away from where it started and it had to go over the house to get there.  Could there have been a funnel cloud or something?  What would pick up a roof, supports and pier block toss them over two roofs and set them down again without a lot of noise?  I have heard some thunder in my day and I know that the rolling I heard was thunder, so where was the sound of all of that mass of roof and supports being torn from its place at the front of the house. Could I have missed that?  Is it possible?  I am baffled to say the least.
Once I got outside yesterday to access the situation I was then faced with the reality of cleaning it all up.  Now I can handle most of the debris.  I am a pretty strong gal but I tried to pull the veranda roof off of the house roof and it was not budging.  I called my boyfriend, who was working about an hour away and he said he would come up as soon as he was done on the job site.  Great!!!Help would be on it's way. 
I rent the house where I am living but the landlord is not to responsive in any kind of a timely manner.  He always has to hem and haw about things.  It can be very aggravating.  Especially when you need to get things done right away, which is where I was yesterday.  I didn't mention that the veranda roof stopped on top of the house roof because it got hooked up on the chimney.  When it got hooked up it knocked off the top cover and stack of the chimney.  The only thing stopping the rain from falling into the chimney part, that was left, was the veranda roof that was laying over the top of it.  Now you have to understand, the only heat I have is a wood burning stove.  If I cannot have a fire it will get cold quickly.  Now the house roof is metal and the veranda roof is also metal so there really wasn't any danger of starting a fire however there was a new storm coming in and having all that debris on top of the roof was just another mess waiting to happen. 
My landlord lives in San Francisco and I really didn't think that he would run up here to clean up anything and besides he has rheumatoid arthritis.  It is very difficult for him to do physical work and my boyfriend was more than willing to come up and take care of removing the roof and replacing the chimney stack and top.  Yeah!!!! I would stay warm.  Staying dry has not been a problem.  The house is intact.  I must say though that not having the front veranda covering makes me feel a bit exposed.  I will be looking forward to getting it fixed.  Now that the rain is pummelling the front of the house I have a breaker that is tripped and will not flip back on.  This means no over head lights in any of the bedrooms, no lights in the second bathroom, no electricity to my clock and the lamp in my bedroom either and no over head light in my dining room or to the any of the plugs in the living room. I also do not have electricity to the front porch light either.   I do however have electricity to the master bath, the kitchen and the laundry room.  Go figure.  The electricity set up in this house is just plain weird.  It makes no sense.  All of the afore mentioned non existent electricity is on one breaker and it is a 15 amp breaker no less.  The questionable part is why is the breaker tripping and if it is from the rain pumelling the front of the house and the only electrical item out there is the porch light then the rain is getting into the fixture and that is just not safe!  How long will I be without electricity is the question I have now.  At least I do have enough to get along.  Oh the joys of life.  Never a dull moment.  Many years ago I ran a day care and took care of 6-8 children.  One of the mothers told me one time that I lived a very exciting life and there was never a dull moment.  One could live vicariously through me.  Well I am sure that many of us have full and exciting lives it just depends on how we look at things.  I personally like to look at life as a gigantic adventure.  Well isn't it the journey not the destination?  I figure that if we are safe then it's all fun and excitement. 
I sit here at my window looking to the east and I know the sun is coming up for I can see outside now.  I see the rain now where as I just heard it a little while ago.  Like I said yesterday the waterways are over flowing one into the other.  Everything is soaked.  I wonder about the dogs, the sheep and where do the birds go.  Are they all huddled up in the trees?  They must be.  I know that the sheep cram themselves in to what ever little space they can in the barn but where the dogs go I do not know.  The barn?  Probably but I would think the best place would be in the lean to garages for I know they are dry and they were recently cleaned out.  That is what I would do but I am not the dogs.  Nick was up here yesterday trying to find a place around the house to get out of the rain but with the roof blown off there really wasn't any place to go and he prefers the front of the house the back is too cluttered and leaky.  This will all change when the rain stops.  The roof will be put back, the supports will be anchored and seams caulked.  We will be prepping for the next big storm so that there will not be a repeat of what just happened. 
Oh I just caught a glimpse of a little bird in the oak tree outside the window.  I do know that I have a lot of birds that hang out in the wood pile and that is protected from the weather. Well folks I've got school work to do so I'll catch you all later.