Well that was interesting.
At about 2pm I left work, Doug needed to stay at work and couldn't go meet Geoff's bus, and seeing as I have an hour long commute timing is important. I left the office and the wind was blowing like mad. Not hurricane strong, but too strong for the stunt kite.
It is often very windy at my office, seeing as it is in Marblehead, and the ocean often gets more wind than we do, five or so miles inland. And I sometimes get my hopes up when I leave the office that when I get home we can do some kite flying. I get home to still, heavy air... and regret that I didn't have a kite at the office.
So today I drove home up the highway, finding it incredibly difficult to control my vehicle. On the exit ramp there were windows strewn all about, frames and all. They fell off a truck, and I drove around them thinking "Jeesh, maybe I should stop and move them" but realized I might get totally killed in the effort. You know how last week I went to do something giving and the universe repayed me with scorn.
I drove a little ways further up the road and there was a tree down. There was a car with its windshield smashed in, and the driver looking really confused. A tree limb was behind him, smashed to a million pieces. More tree limbs were landing all around the street, and traffic didn't know whether to stop or flee.
I pulled over, not under trees, and asked the driver if he was okay. He said he was unhurt but obviously couldn't drive the car. I offered to call 911 for him and whipped out the trusty cell phone. He nodded approval, and I offered him a place to sit in the car to wait for the cops.
Come in, she said, I'll give you shelter from the storm.
The police told me they were on their way, that other folks had called them. The man declined my offer and thanked me. I offered to wait with him and he semi-angrily waved me off, so I left.
More tree limbs were in the road ahead, going was slow. I walked in the door and discovered Jack had pooped all over Jessie's room. This sucked but it showed me that he is indeed eating once again so I only minorly scolded him and cleaned up, and took him out to pee...
and discovered the down tree in my yard.
We have a lot of trees. This one was a young one near the edge of our property, and to be honest was not in my mind a tree that I thought we'd lose to a storm.
A long time ago when we bought the house there were two dead trees down in the creek, which we considered removing but figured they provided a lot of habitat. Nine years later, nature took care of that habitat and whacked both trees down one day when none of us were around to hear or see the event.
We also have a line of hemlocks behind the house that are seriously 100 feet tall. One winter storm cracked one of the tree tops off about 15 feet from the tippy top. I was convinced one of these trees would have been damaged in this windstorm today... but all of them are fine.
This tree though, it was young and nice. Struck down in its prime. The interior does not show rot or insect damage. But it fell. Now the top couple of feet are stuck up in our apple tree (the tree-climbing tree) and we're going to have to figure out how to safely get'r'done before too long.
Doug's ride home was equally difficult, with actual detours around dead trees covering entire roads in North Andover and Boxford.
And now it is sunny.
Weird day weatherwise. I know it isn't hurricane-like, but damn if it sure wasn't just a little more interesting than just driving home.
The other day I asked the universe to send me a tourist from Indiana to get stuck behind so I could go back to bitching and moaning about my commute. Well, I got my wish only it wasn't a tourist.
I was stopped at some road construction, sitting on my side of the one-lane road while a cop waved folks on. It was a huge, long-assed line of traffic. Everyone in the world was headed that way, except for me, so it was my turn to just wait for the entire rest of the planet to go.
The cop gestured to me to wait a second while one last straggler from the huge, long line came through. Which was fine with me, what's one more car.
I couldn't see the guy coming, but the cop could. No one was behind me, I was the only person heading my direction....
that is until some woman came up behind me at a million miles an hour, passed me on my left by crossing over the double yellow line, and then the whipped into the lane in front of me just as the little car was coming past the cop.
I laid on the horn because I couldn't think of anything else to do... the woman slammed on her brakes, as did the oncoming driver, and the cop FREAKED the hell out.
Can't say as I blame him.
What was this woman thinking, that I was parked where I was, just sitting there for fun? The whacko stopped just in time, and the cop ripped her a new one and waved the terrified oncomer through the lane.
Then, two more cars came up behind me and passed me on the left, getting stuck behind the woman who was being verbally assaulted by the incredibly irate cop. He freaked out at them too. I looked at the guy beside me like "what the fuck are you doing!" and he sheepishly let me pull ahead. As I passed the cop, he had this look of complete and utter incredulity and annoyance on his face. He could have been killed, and no doubt the oncoming car driver could have been killed. It was horrific.
At the next light, I ended up behind the asshat woman who initially blew past me. She was talking on her cell, playing with her hair, and sat for 13 seconds at the green left arrow which only stays on for 20 seconds but doesn't come on again for like five minutes.
The guy who sheepishly allowed me ahead of him at the construction scene was behind me and he beeped his horn long and hard. The woman ahead of me thought it was me who beeped, and flipped me off and started the whole freaking out so I could see her in the rear view mirror thing. She finally made the turn, and the guy behind me ran the red arrow behind me (I made it through on yellow).
And the entire rest of the way we were stuck behind this woman, going 20 in a 40 zone, making obscene gestures at me and weaving all over the place back and forth like that meant anything to me. I wanted her to crash into someone on the opposite side of the street, just so the guy behind me, who now was basically in my trunk would HIT ME and I could sue the ever loving crap out of both of their asses.
Believe you me, I would.
The guy behind me works in my office park, so he was up my crack for the entire ride in, and gave me dirty looks when we got to the parking lot. I'm not sure what I did wrong... except for get in front of him. And the universe gave me what I wanted for a story.
Now, I would like the entire rest of my year to not have anyone psycho behind me or in front of me or near me for the commuting time I need to spend in the world. m'kay? Thanks.
Other than that, there's nothing going on. More tree pictures on flickr.com if you're interested. And on that note. Dinner time.
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