A week ago Monday, on the fourth and heaviest day of rain, we heard a large explosion. We'll probably never know whether what we heard was the tree falling or the transformer blowing. What we could confirm was a 150' healthy oak tree fell, blocking our driveway, the street, and taking the utility pole, the power lines, and 4 smaller trees with it. And my brother in law and his Captain were scheduled to fly into Atlanta later that evening! No power, no ability to get a car out, and the knowledge that restoration was going to take more than just a few hours.
Well, thanks to incredible friends, we were soon extricated from our home, Hanji had a place to stay, and we had a vehicle to get to the airport and beyond (thanks T&T!). A few more calls arranged for a hotel at the airport, started Georgia Power on their way, and notified the City Public Works department of the road closure. Within a few days, the miracle workers had most of the tree cut down and hauled away, power restored, and my brother-in-law & his boss safely on the next leg of their trip with a few pleasant memories of Atlanta.
Once again, Georgia Power reminded us of how a well run, well regulated public utility operates. Makes you wonder why we ever deregulated the phone company nationwide and natural gas in Georgia. Kudos to all the linemen, supervisors, and support staff that worked so diligently, with such great attitudes, throughout the days following the Southeastern floods!
All that's left now of the event is some memories, some photos, and the root ball attached to maybe 30' of trunk. If time allows, I plan to count the rings and learn how old that tree was, before it's cut up and the ivy closes over what was recently a proud, majestic tree..

Frances and I are driving home from getting library cards (hi rwdrake). On the way we came across a couple of waterfowl (geese?) walking along Mt. Vernon Rd in heavy traffic. We were already slowed by the traffic going east so we 'goosenecked' a little. First, we noticed there were three baby quackers walking along between the two adult birds. Frances then noticed the flock was really headed our way! We stopped fully to give them space to pass in front, while a nice couple on the other side of the street helpfully stopped the fast oncoming traffic in kind. The family made it safely across, finally hopping up on the sidewalk on our side. Very neat!

We had an interesting evening. After I finished spin class at the gym I noticed there was a big storm brewing in the area. I drove through a little of it on my way home. Upon arriving home, all of my visiting family greeted me at the front porch. a tad unusual for all of them to be out on the porch - usually it's just one or two of them there at a time. Turns out a half hour before I got home, the power went out with a big 'boom-boom'. There's a tree down in my next door neighbor's yard and others down throughout the neighborhood.

Fortunately, my mother-in-law had most of dinner ready before the outage (reminder to self: the next stovetop shall be gas, so I decree) and we ate. Then I took them and the majhong set to Mozart Bakery for a couple hours. We drank and played majhong. A good friend even walked over to visit and watch us play.

Mozart closed and we went home to find the power's still out. I've given everyone a flashlight (my 2-1/2 year old neice felt left out without one of her own) and we're all going to sleep now. Dunno when the power will come back on...hopefully during the night. Either way, I'm planning to take them to the Oriental Pearl area for breakfast / brunch.

Everyone's well although we may need new groceries and more ice cream soon though!

Of course, that doesn't explain the picture. The dark, sure, I mean, the power's out. Those three dots though shuld be salvation. They're from the second Georgia Power truck to show up. The first one left, they found our downed tree but were out of their assigned circuit. This one showed up not a half hour later and dug right in. I keep hearing them over the loudspeaker amongst the sweet occassional sound of the chain saw. Ahh, there it goes again. Georgia Power is a fine company, I'm confident they'll have our power back on soon.

Over, and out.