Can't believe I missed this one!
I do, I mean you are getting up there in age, buddy.
Hope all is well on your end as we brace for some wind! light wind this time, at least
The weird thing is, I'm not even really worried about this storm. Don't take me wrong, I ain't brushing it off completely; I just don't feel the need to evacuate or anything like that.
That being said, we had a wicked thunderstorm here yesterday. I was sitting at the computer next to our sliding glass door that leads to the backyard when it started thundering and lightening. It turned bad fast. Lightening was all over the place and close too. I told my wife that i was going to let the computer finish doing the task it was working on and then I was shutting it down until the storm passed. About 5 seconds later, a bolt of lightening struck super close to the house and shook the house. There was a giant bright red flash and the lights flickered. I ran out onto the back porch and as soon as i got outside, I smelled something burning and then the rain started coming down in buckets. I yelled to my wife to get our daughter and the dog from upstairs (our oldest daughter was at a friends house) because I was sure the house was on fire. I ran out into the yard int he downpour to survey the house and didn't see any damage to the back of the house or the roof, so then ran back into the house and out the front door to survey the front and didn't see anything either. My wife had 911 dialed on the phone but no one answered. I ran down the street to check our neighbors houses but didn't see anything. On my way back to the house another bolt struck nearby (not as close as the last one) and i then decided to RUN back into the house. I went up into the attic and didn't see any damage so we calmed down a bit and I figured if anything had caught on fire, the rain had surely put it out by then.
Once it started calming down, we went outside and surveyed the house again and when we went into the backyard, I noticed a chunk of tree stuck in the screening of our porch that I had somehow missed before. The lightening had struck the oak tree in the backyard and the major damage was on the side of the tree facing away from the house. There were pieces of tree all over the yard that I had missed in the rain and the focus on the house. So now, we are more than likely going to have to cut the tree down. I sent pictures to a co-worker and he says he thinks the tree is going to be pretty much dead now. We had another big oak tree in the backyard that was super close to our house and we finally had it cut down a few years ago. It cost us a little over $3000 to do it and have the stump removed. This one is much bigger so I'm counting on a quote of over $5000 to do the deed. Fingers crossed that maybe insurance might help with some of it, but probably not.
But anyway, I've now hijacked your birthday thread! My work is done here! Happy Birthday (late)!