April 16 - A Tough Day

We had no idea what kind of a day we were going to be faced with when the alarm went off on Monday morning. It had rained most of Sunday, but we were expecting sunny weather on Monday. Dad was going to play golf at Mallard Head golf course (just around the corner from us). All we noticed was that it was a bit windy outside. When Kevin returned from taking Ryan to the bus stop, two of our trees next to our driveway had been blown down. Now, these were not little trees. They were easily 35-40 foot tall pine trees, but the wind had blown so hard, and the ground was so soft from all the rain on Sunday, that they were literally blown over with the roots lifting up out of the ground. Wow.

So Kevin borrowed our neighbor's chainsaw to begin getting rid of the mess. He played lumberjack while Dad and I worked to move the debris to the empty wooded lot across the street from us. The wind was blowing the whole time. Dad decided that playing golf was probably not going to happen that day!

Around 10 a.m., we noticed two more of our trees had been blown down in the same general area as the first. These trees were somewhat smaller, but still. While Kevin and Dad were working to remove these trees, they noticed that another tree was starting to show signs of being blown down soon--its roots were beginning to lift up out of the ground as the wind blew and it swayed. So they decided to take it down themselves before it fell.

Meanwhile, a huge gust of wind (an updraft) blew across our deck and managed to lift and open our closed umbrella and shatter the glass top of our table! What a mess! Olivia and Katelyn were quite upset about this latest development.

Finally, around noon, I received a phone call from Stephanie telling me to turn on the news because there had been a shooting at Virginia Tech (Kevin's alma mater), and so far 21 people had been killed. As the wind blew, and our trees kept coming down, we watched the death toll climb and felt so blessed that all we were dealing with was some lost trees. Our hearts go out to the families whose lives were torn apart that day. And while it is difficult for Kevin to keep hearing his beloved VA Tech talked about in relation to such a horrible event, he knows that this tragedy will serve to make the university a stronger, safer institution that he still hopes to send our children to in the future. Go Hokies!