Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Fun in the storm - glad for the Cage

Here in sleepy old Wooster, a town with some 28,000 people and 40 churches - a town so conservative that George W. would probably be considered a Pinko - the Lord hit hard yesterday afternoon. I left work at 5:00 pm with a gray sky overhead, gripped by the mugginess that crawls across your skin. Within five minutes, I was being hit by 70 mph winds, wayward small branches, and rattling rain.

As I accelerated to avoid a large fir tree dropping behind me, I swerved to evade a rolling branch about the size of my car hood. Seconds later, I hit an intersection where the lights were now out and several cars were blocked by another fallen tree.

I peeled right. Another left-right swerve helped me avoid two new arboreal blockages, while all the time I had to keep an upward eye for potential power line disintegration. A glance to the left revealed another tree across a road.

Needless to say, five minutes later, I made it home and hit the automatic garage doors to shut out the collapsing world.

What a rush!

So what's the moral of the tale? Well, as I was leaving work, I remember thinking, Hey, maybe I could have come on the bike today - it doesn't look too bad!

The prediction had been for severe storms "later in the day" and I had heeded the warning. If I'd been on my bike, I'm not sure I would have fared quite as well on the trip home.

Today, roads are closed, clean-up crews are working, and power is out. No floods, thank goodness. But every now and again, it's interesting how Mother Nature reminds us that our occasionally switching to being temporary Cagers is not necessarily a bad thing.

Siggy

Glad you made it home okay.

Siggy,
Sounds like you got the same storm that came through East Tennesse two days ago. Late afternoon just before going home time a storm came through here. My office is on the second floor. The rain was so hard I could barely see my car parked 50ft away. When i left to go home the road leading to the street i live on had a good dozen trees down which had taken down the power lines. Power was off for a good four hours while the City crews were out cleaning up downed trees and repairing the power lines. At first i thought a tornado had come through, but watching the news later that evening, it was 70+mph winds.

Of course, my children thought it was all terribly exciting (they are only 4) we took the dog for a walk to see the men cutting up the trees. They weren't so excited when i finally convinced them that they could not watch the disney channel because with out electricty the tv doesn't work.

Mother Nature sure does like to remind us every now and then just who is in control around here.

I live in Wooster as well. Trees are down everywhere, and the power won't be back on until after Monday from what I hear. My girlfriend's Dad lost his garage and his prized Porsche 944 to a large tree. Nobody was hurt though, so that's really what is important. And as if it isn't hard enough to sleep when it's hot and humid and you can't run a fan or a/c, we woke up to our neighbors blaring their car stereo at 2:00 am. When we went down to tell them to turn it off, we found one of their drunk a$$es snooping around on our porch! Needless to say someone almost got beat down with a Maglite... damn kids!

My sister went to school in Wooster for a simester! I just e-mailed her about the weather.

While I was living in WORCESTER, MA, we had a good storm. Right in front of my apartment, a car bit it to a big tree. Classic, right up the middle, couldn't have planned it better, total crushing of the car. It was an awesome sight. Good thing, again, nobody was hurt!

A few years ago when we had the big blackout here, it was SOOOOO hot and humid also, REALLY sucked not having the AC or even a fan.

Up in Vermont, it's usually a bad snow storm in the fall when there is still leaves that will take out power. And since a lot of the houses are on just long roads into the woods, so if a tree takes out a single line it can knock out a LOT of houses down the row. Kinda sucks.

Okay Siggy!

You mentioned "the Lord" at the beginning of this well written piece, but THEN you go on to blame "Mother Nature" for this rather scary episode of yours.

Listen dude....you CAN'T have it BOTH WAYS!!!

Who do you REALLY think was behind all this???

Cheers,
Dwight
(BTW...I'm glad you're okay)

Dwight

Gee, you mean you didn't see the deft use of irony in reference to the Lord, counterpointed by the coda that references the pagan? Surely you grasped the intentional dialectic of comparing the monotheistic against the polytheistic - nay, Animistic - religious viewpoints?

Or am I just spouting yet more hot air - similar to yesterday's storm?

Siggy

Try ground zero for three Hurricanes in 14months. Stuart, Florida. Two came ashore, the eye of both with in one mile of each other. We were fortunate in that we were only without power for seven days each time. Little Honda generator has more than paid for itself. Guess I should thanks since FEMA helped me pay for it.

Hey and I thought we had it bad in the UK, not very often we have that happen, and if it does it is platered allover the TV, papers etc. Glad you made it home though, as I was reading it I was actually riding it with you and thought to myself, some serious polishing to do when you get home. But alas you were in the cage, funny how I missed the headline....

Not to be overly facetious or anything Siggy....but why are you living there?

I would think you would be more comfortable in Kalifornia or at least one of the other former soviet socialist republics along the eastern seaboard.

Clan

You know, I dare say California is an option. But then again, ask our CA friends about house prices!

Siggy

siggy, after having been nearly blown off the bridge over the Ohio R. crossing from KY into Evansville, IN during a squall with 60+ crosswinds (on an expanded metal grating steel bridge deck!!!), I will concur one hundred percent. There were several instances where I was probably at a 30° lean, only to have the gust change, and flip me back over to the point where I was about 98% sure I was going to get to take swimming lessons, the hard way!

Nice job of second guessing the weatherman! TWO people with Triumphs live in Wooster??!! I spent 3 or 4 years one summer living in Warsaw, when moving between California and Florida. Nice area for riding, friendly honest folks, but what a depressed area to find hi-tech work. Right after Halloween, when the leaves fell and the sky turned grey, I packed up the family and headed to Florida. Now I get to enjoy hurricanes!!

later, Tom.