I may as well get it out there, because you guys are going to find out sooner or later.
The winter storm that hammered the east coast this weekend was all our fault. Perhaps the fault of my family as a whole, or it may be that the blame can be placed squarely on my shoulders.
#1 believes, and the idea is not without merit, that this was God’s way of telling us that we should have taken our Christmas lights down.
She bases this belief on the fact that the giant branch that landed five feet from her head and could have killed her instead took out the gutters, to which the lights were attached.
If you look at the vertical bar in the center of the picture, that’s the gutter. With the Christmas lights. As far as why those lights are still up, that’s another post entirely.
But it may have been me and what I wrote about Winter on Facebook.
I’ll not be taunting Winter in print in the future.
I feel like we’re the luckiest people on the planet. It’s hard to show in the pictures, but we had two giant branches that just missed doing serious damage to the house, not to mention the one that didn’t land on #1.
Besides the gutters, we got our porch pierced:
And that’s it so far. That’s it!
So. Lucky.
The power’s still out. School is cancelled. I just hipped the little ones to the fact that power out days count as snow days. If we go over three snows days, they have to make it up at the end of the school year. Two down so far, and winter hasn’t even begun.
CC got a generator today, thanks to the shop that our shows rent their sound gear from. We now have heat. We got power to the freezer and the fridge before we lost anything. We have the internet back.
I Facebook-bitched about how the county hadn’t even started to clear our street yet- it’s completely blocked by one of the giant branches that didn’t land on my house- and they showed up within fifteen minutes. Never doubt the power of social media.
No school parties, no Halloween parade, and the neighborhood with the best candy and haunted houses behind us is pitch black and deadly with debris and laden branches that continue to fall. But #1 came home from an errand and said that everyone was out on main street, trick-or-treating where all the businesses have power. They went to main street and hit all the houses between here and there while it was still daylight. As soon as they finish hand washing the dinner dishes by candlelight, we’ll eat candy and make s’mores and continue telling spooky stories that may or may not involve the county’s wood chipper (whirring away in front of the house) and wayward children.
Here’s to Halloween miracles.
JM Randolph, accidentalstepmom 
That’s scary! Glad you guys are all okay. Yeah, it’s probably best if you don’t taunt winter anymore. This was just a warning…
I can’t even imagine what else it has up its sleeve for us.
Glad to hear that you and your family are okay. We live in a fairly wooded area as well and every winter will see a few scenes in the neighborhood like this. Of course it was a bit inconsiderate of the weather to plaster your decorations but at least you’ll have lots of wood for a bonfire and marshmallow roast next summer. Right.
Stay well and I hope that the coming winter is more peaceful for you than this. Peace.
Too bad bonfires are illegal in New Jersey. We did do s’mores with sterno while the power was out, which was pretty great!
Are the crosses for soon to be dead and gone snowflakes?
The crosses were decorations CC made for the kids, in the style of the old Tombstone, AZ western town. Each kid had an alias and an epitaph on their cross. I will not mourn the passing of the snowflakes.
Sounds like a Halloween alright!
The branch puncturing the porch roof is impressive.
It really is, and it doesn’t quite read in the picture. It’s impressive how singular it is in its point of entry, and how entirely all these other massive branches missed us. It’s impressive how it’s still there 🙂
Glad you are all ok, and I am NOT EVER CROSSING YOU….just saying. Happy Halloween!!!
Ha ha! Thanks! The elementary school rescheduled the Halloween parade for tomorrow, so Happy Halloween!
I’m glad you guys are all okay, and no major damage to the house – like a tree through the living room or anything. As far as the porch piercing, are you guys going to go with a bar, or a hoop? Or maybe one of those dangly ones?
When the sitter first called about a tree hitting the house, I was thinking that it had taken out our bedroom, the kitchen, the dining room, hit the entire family, squashed the dogs, and crushed the china cabinet. So, yeah, I’m pretty happy! And as for the piercing, I’m thinking dangly. What do you think?
WHoah! Hold on…you live in…Jersey? I am down further south, just outside of Philly…we had NO SNOW. But, my red impatiens did die last night, and waking up this morning to see their dark green shriveled masses, was quite a concern. But those pics of your house…(shiver)) ouch! What a menace! The weather was surely out to get you, and diminish your Halloween Joy. But seriously…you live, like…90 minutes north of me! I had nothing but some cold! Agh! I heard we are in for a really nasty, cold, snowy winter.
On the up-side… I got all self-righteous, and actually returned grass seed today! But, it was to Wal-Mart, so you know they deserved it. Planted earlier this month, the ‘fall’ growing mix failed to thrive… what grass seed manufacturers in China even give a dam if my grass grows? The label was a farce. I got my money back, and bought a bottle of Pinot Noir. Which I don’t even like. But, still…
Good for you! Stupid Wal-Mart and their chinese grass. seed. Yeah! It’s a total bummer that your impatiens bit the dust. Now that we’re starting to clean up, I’m noticing all the things that had been alive and blooming before the snow came. Ah well. I guess Connecticut fared far worse than NJ, and I heard a rumor that the tree crews are refusing to come out there because they still haven’t been paid for the Irene cleanup.
Ah-ha! I just posted wondering who caused it to snow. Now I know who to blame.
Just call me your scapegoat!
Glad you’re okay, but the storm damage really seemed to bring the Halloween decorations together.
It kinda did, huh? Maybe we can save some bits of tree and gutter and remake the scene in years to come.
Holy crap! You have a great attitude about this- most people would be cursing their “luck” at the damage. Now you have to go on the news and describe what the trees sounded like when the snapped and came down. Does this mean you’ll not be putting up Christmas decorations at all this year?
I hope I’m not being overly optimistic in thinking we can have the gutter replaced before Christmas. But if that’s the case, we can always just put santa hats on the pumpkins. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel like carving them.
Wow! I am soooo not ready for winter. 😦
Me. Neither. Though I did just buy everybody snow boots, which should assure that we won’t need them for at least two months.
Good gravy! What a mess. I’m so glad no one was hurt because that looks pretty serious. The snow in the city just gave me good reason to stay inside.
It was one of those ouchy snows. I call it an angry snow, the kind that hurts you as it falls.
What’s our Canada weather doing there? We still have yet to have snow, which in Calgary is amazing.
Glad everyone was okay. 🙂
I told your weather that it was lost, and sent it up your way. Thanks for the good wishes 🙂
Now you see, this is why I don’t live where there is any snow! You were so lucky with those trees and the guttering just scares me!
As you say, this is just the start of winter, I hope it doesn’t get too much worse for you and yours.
Me too! Though perhaps it is time to consider a move to warmer climes.
Oh my goodness! Those pictures are brutal! So glad you all are okay and that the kids got some trick or treating in anyway.
A couple towns over from us, they rescheduled their Trick or Treating for Friday night. So now, of course, the kids want to go Trick or Treating there too.
As long as I have climate control and internet access (not in that order) I can deal with anything.
I also need chocolate. Luckily, I was stocked up.
I wish I had had your positive attitude, JM! So glad your house is okay and you were able to get a sweet generator! We finally got power back yesterday (Friday) afternoon.