12-09-2009, 11:41 AM
Let me set a scene here and put some images in your head and tell a little story...
It was a dark and stormy night (sorry Snoopy, had to do it!)...
A couple of nights ago, during that storm here in Phoenix, about 11p.m., I was inside my nice warm house, sipping some hot tea, watching the storm rage outside. I've got several security cameras mounted around the perimeter of our place and I was flipping through them on my monitor checking out the different views of our property. In the back yard, I've got one of them portable vehicle shade structures. I used to have it attached to the side of the garage, BUT, because we are putting in a pool, I've moved it to the other side of the yard where it sits temporarily tied down. At 11:09p.m., I'm watching the wind blow and I see one of my tie down straps SNAP! Expletive, expletive, expletive! Darned if that thing didn't start to float 2-3' off the ground. 'Bout choked on my tea! Luckily I was already wearing jeans, a T-shirt and some socks so I hurriedly slipped on my flip flops and ran out the door with no plan in mind. Since it'd been raining all day, and because of all the construction, our backyard is a monster truck mud pit! Forgetting this, I ran across the driveway and right out in the middle of it and about slipped and fell on my butt. Guess what?... socks and flip flops don't go well with mud. Finally, I make it across the mud pit to the shade structure and not wanting to pick it up out of my neighbors yard in the morning, I just grabbed it and held on for all I was worth. With each gust, the darn thing nearly picked me up off of the ground. Good thing was, it was only wind at this point and it wasn't that cold being somewhere in the vicinity of 50F. Then it started to rain... and not straight down rain either but in your face rain... and it was cold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hung on to that thing for a good 15-20 minutes... muddy socks, T-shirt, soaked, and rain in the face. Finally getting fed up with that, I decided I had to figure something else out and when the wind seemed to die down just a bit, I made a run for the house (through a different patch of muck this time), through the kitchen (muddy socks and all), and out into the garage where I kept my stash of extra tie downs. I grabbed a bunch, and headed back out (getting good about slogging through the mud by now), and started strapping that thing down to anything I could find.
Success. Upon going back inside the house, a quick check of the weather revealed we were getting 35mph sustained with gusts up to 70!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thawed out with a hot shower and some more tea and since my adrenaline was still going pretty good, I think I managed to fall asleep around 1a.m. If only that were the end of it...
1:30a.m., the house alarm went off! Jumped out of bed, grabbed the protection, and started systematically clearing each room. The 7 year old immediately woke up quite frightened and shadowed me whereas the 4 year old slept right through it. After clearing the house of any intrusions it occurred to me to check the porch attic access panel. Sure enough, the wind had blown it up into the attic just enough to break contact with the alarm sensor. Guess what I'll be doing today?... screwing that panel shut or attaching some latches... I haven't decided which yet. Adrenaline still pumping, needless to say, I didn't get much sleep the rest of the night.
That morning, as I was taking my kids to school, it looked like a small tornado had gone through... trees uprooted and blown over everywhere, roads closed off because of flooding, Christmas decorations littered the streets and all kinds of other storm stuff as well.
All kinds of fun!
It was a dark and stormy night (sorry Snoopy, had to do it!)...
A couple of nights ago, during that storm here in Phoenix, about 11p.m., I was inside my nice warm house, sipping some hot tea, watching the storm rage outside. I've got several security cameras mounted around the perimeter of our place and I was flipping through them on my monitor checking out the different views of our property. In the back yard, I've got one of them portable vehicle shade structures. I used to have it attached to the side of the garage, BUT, because we are putting in a pool, I've moved it to the other side of the yard where it sits temporarily tied down. At 11:09p.m., I'm watching the wind blow and I see one of my tie down straps SNAP! Expletive, expletive, expletive! Darned if that thing didn't start to float 2-3' off the ground. 'Bout choked on my tea! Luckily I was already wearing jeans, a T-shirt and some socks so I hurriedly slipped on my flip flops and ran out the door with no plan in mind. Since it'd been raining all day, and because of all the construction, our backyard is a monster truck mud pit! Forgetting this, I ran across the driveway and right out in the middle of it and about slipped and fell on my butt. Guess what?... socks and flip flops don't go well with mud. Finally, I make it across the mud pit to the shade structure and not wanting to pick it up out of my neighbors yard in the morning, I just grabbed it and held on for all I was worth. With each gust, the darn thing nearly picked me up off of the ground. Good thing was, it was only wind at this point and it wasn't that cold being somewhere in the vicinity of 50F. Then it started to rain... and not straight down rain either but in your face rain... and it was cold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hung on to that thing for a good 15-20 minutes... muddy socks, T-shirt, soaked, and rain in the face. Finally getting fed up with that, I decided I had to figure something else out and when the wind seemed to die down just a bit, I made a run for the house (through a different patch of muck this time), through the kitchen (muddy socks and all), and out into the garage where I kept my stash of extra tie downs. I grabbed a bunch, and headed back out (getting good about slogging through the mud by now), and started strapping that thing down to anything I could find.
Success. Upon going back inside the house, a quick check of the weather revealed we were getting 35mph sustained with gusts up to 70!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thawed out with a hot shower and some more tea and since my adrenaline was still going pretty good, I think I managed to fall asleep around 1a.m. If only that were the end of it...
1:30a.m., the house alarm went off! Jumped out of bed, grabbed the protection, and started systematically clearing each room. The 7 year old immediately woke up quite frightened and shadowed me whereas the 4 year old slept right through it. After clearing the house of any intrusions it occurred to me to check the porch attic access panel. Sure enough, the wind had blown it up into the attic just enough to break contact with the alarm sensor. Guess what I'll be doing today?... screwing that panel shut or attaching some latches... I haven't decided which yet. Adrenaline still pumping, needless to say, I didn't get much sleep the rest of the night.
That morning, as I was taking my kids to school, it looked like a small tornado had gone through... trees uprooted and blown over everywhere, roads closed off because of flooding, Christmas decorations littered the streets and all kinds of other storm stuff as well.
All kinds of fun!