Our Family Journal

We haven’t really explained Thanksgiving to Elizabeth yet this year, though I tried to begin this morning when we were out in the car. She was wondering if we were on our way to Grandma’s house (you know “over the river and thru the woods . . . “). We were actually on our way to buy a new bush for our front yard. Needless to say our fun outing was momentarily disappointing. You could see her weighing in on that as she contemplated: Grandma . . . Bush . . . Grandma . . . Bush. Not too much question which was the preferred destination! Still, we had fun buying a bush. It was a burning bush. Matthew noted that Moses saw a burning bush - it was on fire but didn’t burn up. (He was so proud to tell me all about this.) I told him this burning bush would probably burn up. Fun though to have a “biblical plant” in our yard. As to Thanksgiving, we’ll have to get back to that with our little girl and work on the explanation. For the moment, I think she’s figured out that first it will snow (check), then it will be Thanksgiving (not checked off but soon - she hopes!), and THEN it will be Christmas. Meanwhile I guess I’m still waiting for the leaves to fall off!

As to the weather, the surprise snow (apparently 3-5″ of sopping wet stuff over several hours plus heavy rain on top of it) caused some real damage. When the leaves are still on the trees, the snow sticks to them and thus there’s a lot more weight on the branches and they will break under the weight at alarming rates. There are branches and limbs everywhere in people’s yards, the streets, you name it. I heard there were many electrical poles fallen and several trees on fire last night. We lost power somewhere in there (our clocks were blinking this morning when we woke up). Steve commented on our backyard which he had cleaned up entirely of sticks so as to be able to rake easily is now just covered with them, not to mention the large leafy branches the kids were hiding and playing in while he was digging holes for our bushes (he transplanted one and planted the new one this afternoon). The garden center we went to has thousands of dollars of damage to its structures in the back that protect the plants (vertical beams supporting mesh netting snapped and fallen down taking everything with them, netting torn, irrigation tubes smashed, metal poles bent 30 degrees . . . not to mention the smashed plants and other inventory - smashed from the snow itself if not from things falling on them). I got mums (large gorgeous ones!) for a couple dollars apiece! I can’t imagine what other damage local businesses have suffered. It’s one thing when you’re expecting snow, it’s another when the forecast never even allowed for the possibility and so no one was prepared for it (though you can’t prepare the trees…). But the kids were ecstatic to see it and “play in it” (more like playing in the mud and stomping on globs of leftover slush).

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 21st, 2006 at 4:24 pm, and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.