Sunday wasn't too eventful, anyplace, though I did have some nice CE classes.
Monday, the girls didn't have school, which made spouse happy, since he'd have had to get up more than an hour earlier than usual to drive them. He headed off to work, because I swear that Sears would stay open through anything if they thought a single customer might show up. But the Governor was closing the road to all but emergency vehicles at 1pm, so they let folks go. Husband got home before the bridge was closed and shortly after that they lost power for half an hour or so. It was back for less than an hour when it went out again, this time for good.
I got back to my B&B a bit before 5 so I could change for the dinner at 6. My phone had decided to eat it's battery that morning, so I hadn't been in contact with anyone since noon, when they lost power and internet access. (Facebook is a great way to text when your phone isn't working.) I called home to see how things were going, and spouse says, you know how you've been concerned about the willow?
Our house is to the left, you can see the side porch railing. The willow is on the other side of the privacy fence on the neighbor's property.
Me: yeah, what about it? Spouse: You don't have to worry about it any more. Me: Where is it?
From almost the same place, see the railings?
As far as we can tell the only damage at all from the storm to the house is to one of the railing uprights where it was hit by part of the tree. I have several 2x2s in the shed, so that will be very easy to replace. The privacy fence is pretty much destroyed, except for the panel closest to the road, which happens to be one I had wanted to take down since it makes it hard to see what is coming when you are pulling out of the drive. The drive is past the tree, behind where the car is. In all previous storms with high winds or lots of rain, including Irene, we'd ended up with a lot of that tree in our yard, but it was all the front yard and/or the driveway. So we'd decided to pull the car further towards the back of the yard. If we'd parked it in the usual spot it wouldn't have been touched.
As it is:
Here is a shot from the street:
And from our 2nd floor window:
And lastly a really good shot of the inside of the willow which explains why it came down at 4:15 on Monday, before the winds had even really picked up:
Today, the neighbor and their insurance folks and tree folks came over to assess the damage, and then came back later with a chainsaw and a bolt cutter and excavated the car and the back porch. The car has a pretty massive dent in the roof (on the inside you can see a definite drop and the light is kind of loose), and the back window is broken, probably because of the piece of tree which went through it. However all the other windows are intact, and all the doors open and close just fine. So it's going to the insurance adjuster on Saturday to see whether they think it's worth fixing, which they won't, because it's a 16yo Subaru, however, as long as it's safe to drive, we'll just get the rear window fixed, and plan to replace it next spring after we finish paying off the other car. We've driven another car for over a year after it was supposedly totalled, so keep your fingers crossed that the roof damage is just "cosmetic".
5 comments:
I was wondering how you did in the storm. Glad to see it wasn't too bad. Except for the car of course, Hopefully there won't be any reason not keep driving it until you're ready to replace it.
WOW! You were lucky that it was your car rather than your house. But STILL!
I checked in periodically and knew you were at a librarian conference. Was hoping you were surviving the storm without too much disruption.
Years ago I had an old Honda which ran BEAUTIFULLY totaled by a guy who had a heart attack and ran into it as it was parked. His insurance company wanted to total it instead of fix it because it was so old. So I took the money and drove it for three more years. Then I sold it to a kid next door and HE drove it for 4 more. That car was spooky it was so rugged. Nothing could kill it.
Two or three cars ago, we had a Caravan which was "totalled" cosmetically, which we drove for another few months. The insurance company doesn't seem to care, as long as if it were totalled again, they don't have to pay out a second time.
It is making rather horrid noises from the undercarriage, and we found a strange piece of metal in the yard, which *may* have come from our car, but as long as it isn't something crucial, we can deal with the rattling. The neighbors may not be so thrilled about it...
We should have the adjuster to look at it Friday or Saturday, and we'll see whether he thinks it's safe to drive, since I'm sure that repairs would be more than the $1200 or so Blue Book value.
Now if this had happened next May, we'd have been thrilled, since we'd be finished paying off the Santa Fe, and would be able to swing more car payments, and could use the check as the down payment.
Things never work out the way that would be convenient.
Ugh. That sucks. :(
This struck a nerve because that's a constant worry here in Broad Ripple.
As Bobbi puts it, when the realtor says "Nicely shaded lot..." it really means "Look out below!"
We've dodged a few bullets like this already, but it does keep one on one's toes.
Fingers crossed for the Subie!
Well, as the spousal Old Coot says, at least we don't have to worry about random acts of trees over the driveway anymore.
The adjuster is looking at it this morning, and I should be hearing back from him soon. Spouse left for work with him poking around at it, but so far the news seems to be "totalled". However, it looks like we might be able to get some family assistance with downpayment for new(er?) car, so it won't hurt so bad. We'll do some car hunting on Saturday. Since we already have a working SUV, anything we get just needs to be tall enough that with my knees I don't need an hydraulic lift to get in and out of the thing, it needs to seat 4, or two and a cello, and it needs better milage than the 10yo Santa Fe, which hasn't done better than 22mpg highway since the great radiator explosion of 2010. It looks like there may be some affordable NEW mazdas, hondas, hyundais, and fords which fit those requirements, especially if we go for a last year's model which the dealer really, really, wants to get off the lot.
Mazda2s come in a really interesting shade of green. Hmmm. we could name it Kermit....
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