Wow. Well, every life has its firsts - this weekend was my first brush with tornadoes. The fierce storm that was sweeping across the south blew through NC yesterday, and we brushed up against tornadoes twice - once while shopping in Raleigh where we caught the edge of one that wiped out several businesses along highway 264, and again when we got home to find that another tornado had danced around our neighborhood and caused some pretty significant devastation in our community at large. The house pictured above, which is 2 blocks from my home, had the top of this tree in their front living room. 1 block in the other direction, several other large trees were blown over and power poles were snapped off at the base, knocking out power on our block for about 22 hours. The area where my husband's office is located was one of the hardest hit (his building is remarkably undamaged with just a couple of broken windows). We totally feel like we dodged a bullet on several occasions this weekend, and our hearts go out to the people in our town who have had homes blown apart, businesses completely destroyed and lives up-ended. I have not heard of anyone being seriously hurt here, for which I am eternally grateful.
Just goes to show you how quickly things can change in a life. Yesterday afternoon we were having fun at my son's elementary school fundraiser and shopping for gadgets at REI, and in a heartbeat things sort of went sideways. Fortunately we were untouched, but 3 minutes or one block one way or another and it could have been a very different story. A poignant reminder to take NOTHING for granted - and to stop procrastinating on the things that are most important.
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