The tree is down. It no longer poses a threat to the house. My backyard is littered with carnage. It’ll take days, maybe weeks to clear everything out. I took a walk this morning. Everyone was hit. Trees are down all up and down the block. My street is the middle of a trio of streets. To our west, Douglas, there was almost no damage whatsoever. To our east, Ware, it was a disaster. At least on my street there was no structural damage except for a few exhaust vents blown off. On Ware, house are hurt. The tornado apparently passed right over us before lighting on Ware.

As I sit in my front parlor typing this, I am listening to a symphony of chainsaws outside. My hands are filthy with mud and sap. My “trigger finger” is sore from all my chainsawing. And all I’ve done is get the tree onto the ground from its precarious perch above my house. Cutting it all up into manageable pieces is what I will undertake after I eat lunch.