A. lost count of the number of trees he had to cut up.
A. lost track of how many trees he cut up over the weekend. The massively powerful but geographically tiny storm cell that moved through on Friday night went straight down Franklin St. then moved through Durham up 15-501 business. It took out power for more than half of the city of Durham, and for a good bit of Chapel Hill. We had been at my mom-in-law's house for a not-picnic dinner, and were talking about going to see the fireworks, and where would be better. Nate said, from the living room, 'is that thunder?' I said 'no, it's fireworks'. A. looked outside and said that no, it wasn't thunder. But we kept hearing it, so eventually we started paying attention. We hustled to get in to the car so we could get home before the storm hit, but it started before then.
The wind was amazing; some of the traffic lights were being held at a 80-degree angle to the road - almost straight out. We zoomed home to try to get the dog in and to bring in my freshly sanded dining-room chairs. As soon as we got home, A. started putting on his work clothes. As he did, the phone rang. The on-call supervisor had put a crew together to get up the 6 trees he had reports about already. A. went out at 9 pm, and worked steadily until 6 am. He came home and went straight to bed. An hour and a half later, the phone rang again, so he went back out until noon. By that time, he was up to around 22 trees. That was Saturday, and he spent Saturday afternoon asleep, and Saturday night sleeping fitfully.
He and Nate spent part of the day today together, and we got some errands done, and then on the way back from those errands, the phone rang again. The crew got together at the Public Works around 5 pm, and A. got finished around 8:45. I had dinner waiting for him when he got in, and he's already asleep.
There were a few people who were in need of cutting out - i.e. their roads weren't passable for emergency vehicles, which is scary enough. But A. is also responsible for public housing trees, where 4 trees clumped together to fall on one guy's unit, breaking in his window where he had been asleep, and there was another, handicapped, lady who had been trapped inside her unit when a tree fell down across her doorway.
Nate was extremely helpful this evening - he pushed the cart around at the grocery store, and he helped carry the groceries in and helped make dinner. But by about 8 pm, he had had enough, and started crying about wanting his dad. We snuggled and I told Nate how much of a hero his dad was. He decided that he would talk about his dad at 'carpet time' (something at daycare, apparently), and then he was asleep.
I'm mildly aggravated because the bathroom is not going to be functional before my mom's birthday party this next weekend, and also because there were a LOT of other employees who simply didn't bother showing up when they were called in to help. But oh well, there's no help for it. At least I got the chairs painted, and the archway painted, and the shopping done, and some cleaning done.
The wind was amazing; some of the traffic lights were being held at a 80-degree angle to the road - almost straight out. We zoomed home to try to get the dog in and to bring in my freshly sanded dining-room chairs. As soon as we got home, A. started putting on his work clothes. As he did, the phone rang. The on-call supervisor had put a crew together to get up the 6 trees he had reports about already. A. went out at 9 pm, and worked steadily until 6 am. He came home and went straight to bed. An hour and a half later, the phone rang again, so he went back out until noon. By that time, he was up to around 22 trees. That was Saturday, and he spent Saturday afternoon asleep, and Saturday night sleeping fitfully.
He and Nate spent part of the day today together, and we got some errands done, and then on the way back from those errands, the phone rang again. The crew got together at the Public Works around 5 pm, and A. got finished around 8:45. I had dinner waiting for him when he got in, and he's already asleep.
There were a few people who were in need of cutting out - i.e. their roads weren't passable for emergency vehicles, which is scary enough. But A. is also responsible for public housing trees, where 4 trees clumped together to fall on one guy's unit, breaking in his window where he had been asleep, and there was another, handicapped, lady who had been trapped inside her unit when a tree fell down across her doorway.
Nate was extremely helpful this evening - he pushed the cart around at the grocery store, and he helped carry the groceries in and helped make dinner. But by about 8 pm, he had had enough, and started crying about wanting his dad. We snuggled and I told Nate how much of a hero his dad was. He decided that he would talk about his dad at 'carpet time' (something at daycare, apparently), and then he was asleep.
I'm mildly aggravated because the bathroom is not going to be functional before my mom's birthday party this next weekend, and also because there were a LOT of other employees who simply didn't bother showing up when they were called in to help. But oh well, there's no help for it. At least I got the chairs painted, and the archway painted, and the shopping done, and some cleaning done.