The Circle of Life: The Storms, The Jinxed Truck & Smiling Little Faces

When my brother Jerry was coming to town to visit Mom & Dad, Mom would always say, "Well, the 'Cyclone' is coming soon." Jerry has had that nickname since childhood. He was the child who, as a small toddler, put his legs through the slats of the playpen and literally walked it across the street. Our family lived right, smack-dab in the middle of the metropolis of Elberton, GA. To walk a playpen across the busy street was no easy feat. But by then the town already knew of Jerry and anything was possible. You know how Dennis The Menace is sometimes shown as a cartoon tornado? Well, Jerry was the human Cyclone. He was a storm waiting to happen. Still is.

Speaking of storms, our area has had some vicious, nasty storms this week. According to the local paper, on Tuesday night we had a macro burst that hit Fountain Inn down through Laurens. Man, oh man, did it wreak havoc. My friend Cindy called me on Thursday and said I must come see her subdivision. The only reason she didn't call me the day after the storm is because she and her family were helping her brother-in-law's family clear the road to their house in order for emergency crews to be able to get to their property. Cindy and others worked 5-6 hours clearing limbs and trees that had fallen on the road to Art's house. Here are some pictures.

You can see where trees fell across the road and a path wide enough for one car has been cleared.

Some of the devastation in Art's yard.

Although about 20 trees fell, Art's house was untouched.

Cindy told me that other homes in Fountain Inn had trees down. Call me "Scoop". I took my camera and went on a field trip through Fountain Inn checking out damages. I first went to my friend Susie's house. One house over I found this huge tree down.

The root system was taller than a man.

I called my friend Ginger to see if she was okay. She said to drive over and see her street. Thankfully, her house is fine. But . . . .

This is the road of Inn Circle. It was blocked with downed trees.

Susie's husband told to check out a house on the other side of Fountain Inn, so that was my next stop.

A tremendous tree fell and crushed part of the front porch and completely crushed a car. Thankfully, no one was injured.

Backtracking just a bit . . . Tom's birthday was Tuesday, June 16. That night was the worst storm of the week, bar none. We didn't assess our damage until early the next morning. Tom received a belated "gift". (Sorry for the blurry picture, but I came outside without my glasses on and the camera was on the wrong setting.)

Yep, more huge limbs fell on his truck.

Tom's truck is jinxed, I just know it. It's been hit by another vehicle twice (both times Tom was sitting still at a red light) and it's been hit by falling tree limbs twice.

Tom has just moved one huge limb up the driveway and moved the other limb beside the truck.

Glad to say there was no damage on his truck! However, today we almost had another run-in. Tom & I were leaving a restaurant and were headed around the back of the building. A car was pulling out of the parking space located behind the building and came so close to hitting Tom's truck. Tom was driving right by the driver's window and turning left behind him. How can anyone not see this huge piece of driving equipment????? Are people stupid? Or just oblivious to what's going on around them? Jeepers, creepers.

Here are some pictures over the last week while we were celebrating birthdays.