In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2)
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Monday, September 7, 2026 11:50
VIEWED: 338648
PAGE 759 of 834
Sounds like you're getting back on track, Sigs.
#MeToo!
We suffered an act of god the other night. I never lived through anything like it before. I told my friend that God was trying to kill a motherf*er.
Power was down for almost 3 days and trees and poles were knocked down everywhere. My biggest damage, thankfully, was just a little water in my basement, two ripped window screens and the anchor that ties into your house that keeps the weight off of the electrical wires. Oh and my coaxial internet cable came down from a pole they had it on in between the wires and my house and now it's just draped over my garage and laying on the ground for about 6 feet before going to my house. Miraculously it still works! Glad about that since I can't even get somebody to come out to fix it until next week.
So much hail came down at such a force, I can't believe none of my windows broke. It was a cool night, but I couldn't believe that 8 hours later I still saw piles of melting hail that looked like snowmen had melted there.
I was up in my attic pulling some stuff down when it came out of nowhere. No air raid sirens, no nothing. Then out of nowhere, the roof of my house was getting pummeled with the heaviest hail I've heard. And I'm hearing booming noises outside. I ran for the window looking out over my front porch and all I saw through the hail and wet window with leaves plastered on it was a glowing blue light. (I still don't know what that was).
By the time I got downstairs, I was hearing hail hit my windows, HARD!
Then something hit one of the windows REALLY HARD and I can't believe it didn't break. That turned out to be about 20% of my neighbor's tree that thankfully must have hit the ground on the leaves end first and flipped up and whipped into the window. If it flew from the tree directly into my window, I'm pretty sure it would have looked like that scene from Poltergiest.
Thankfully, my generator worked beautifully. I even found out that I could fish my 100ft orange extension cord into the house and I have no problem powering both the fridge and sump off of it, so that's awesome to know when I've got about $2k worth of banked insulin in the fridge.
I ran out of gas though at 2:30 AM that first night. I had enough to put some in, but I had to go get some. That is when I knew I was f#@(!.
Barricades everywhere. At first, I didn't even think that I could go anywhere, but then I was able to go around one of them and the street was clear (I think that was more a double-buffer to keep people who didn't need to be in that area at all out, rather than one to keep people who lived there in).
When I tried going around the other way first I was shocked at what my headlights revealed. It looked like a tornado hit. Powerlines down in the middle of the street and trees and branches everywhere.
Ultimately, after doubling back when the main road was clearly dark as the eye could see, I went the other way and had to drive almost 7 miles to find a working gas station. The girl there didn't seem dumb, so I don't think it was her fault, but I had to go back in THREE TIMES and ultimately I decided to use a different pump and finally got my gas.
That generator just saved my house, and possibly my life. I have no idea how many times it powered the sump in 3 days, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were over 500, or even double that.
I've heard that there are houses in the area that were completely destroyed. Some people have said that there was a tornado, but I don't see official confirmation of that. Whatever it is, it was an act of god.
I'm looking at the positives here...
1. My damage was very minimal.
2. I found out I can easily power both my sump pump and fridge on my generator without any obvious signs of distress when the sump kicks on. Once I get my plug outlet outside that can feed electric into my whole house directly, I will be trying to load new things ont
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Stay safe SIX. Oh and your neighbor is a dick.
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Done for today and it was in the 60sF when I went to laundry and out for my walk. Now it is up to 70F. Was looking like a rain earlier.
I can't seem to find a fraggin' clock I can sit on my coffee table. The other died a couple of nights ago. Have to do something on Monday that will take me near another thrift store. Maybe I can find one there.
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Dang, SIX!
I was wondering where you were and a bit worried!
But I had no idea all that was happening!
Turns out NW Indiana made the national news, lucky you! /sarcasm
Quote:
Wednesday night storms leave trail of damage in Northwest Indiana
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/wednesday-night-storms-le
ave-trail-of-damage-in-northwest-indiana/vi-AA26yaW6
Good thing you were worried and foresighted enough to get a generator. Things could have been so much worse for you.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Dang, SIX!
I was wondering where you were and a bit worried!
But I had no idea all that was happening!
Turns out NW Indiana made the national news, lucky you! /sarcasmQuote:
Wednesday night storms leave trail of damage in Northwest Indiana
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/wednesday-night-storms-le
ave-trail-of-damage-in-northwest-indiana/vi-AA26yaW6
Good thing you were worried and foresighted enough to get a generator. Things could have been so much worse for you.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
Yeah... It was really crazy. I thought I had it pretty bad until I realized just how bad it actually was. That generator was the only reason my house didn't get destroyed. During the storm and for hours after it, that pump was going off every minute or two. Even 2 days later before the power came back on, it was still going off every 8 minutes between cycles.
I'm pretty sure the reporter didn't know what she was talking about at the end there, saying that it would be the homeowner's responsibility to get rid of that tree that had fallen from the curb onto their house. Most likely she was given bogus information from a very frustrated homeowner, who likely had gotten bad information from a low-level employee from one outfit or another who gave her bad info.
Despite being down nearly 3 days, I can't be mad at the power company or the city or really anybody involved. I think they did a great job considering how bad everything had gotten, and I think that people in general were really good about helping each other out and getting through it. It was probably the first time a lot of them have been out of their house for anything other than work and grocery shopping since Covid.
They've had crews all over the place cutting down trees and cutting away any limbs in the vicinity of power lines and although in many cases I'm sure the homeowner was responsible for then bringing them to the curb to be collected.
When I saw an AT&T guy out there, I asked him to come verify for absolute sure that the cable that had fallen was just the coax (since it looks different outside) and he's the one who noticed my wall anchor had been ripped from my house. He told me that I'd probably have to pay an electrician $500 to get that fixed proper.
I called the power company on that and they said they would eventually get somebody over to look at it, but when I saw those crews and showed it to them, I went back to work and 20 minutes later it was already fixed for free.
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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Alberta, Canada
Grizzly country is no place to go for a walk with your dog and no bear spray
https://x.com/MagneticNorse/status/2070237921462911466#m
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I saw that. OMG my heart was pounding just watching. I've been stalked by big guard dogs before, but this????? That was CLOSE. It could gave gone wrong so many times. My god.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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I think I just lucked out.
I called my neighbor across the street yesterday to let him know I'd come over tomorrow and get all the limbs out to the curb for him. He was just about to pay a tree guy to come over and cut down a problem tree, but then the city came around and cut all the problem parts away for free but left them behind, in front and on the side of the garage behind a big wooden fence. He said his daughter and grandson were going to work on it yesterday. I've met his daughter before, but never the kid. Kid must be strong, because I didn't think his daughter would be able to do all that much, but if they didn't get all of it they got a great deal of it up in front. His truck is parked in the driveway for the first time in days and it's all swept up too, so they might have gotten all of it.
If I wasn't aching from thigh to shoulder from the 13 hours of yard work the other day, I wouldn't feel so relieved right now. This is the guy who made the missing drawer faces for me in his garage. We've done small favors for each other over the years, but I kinda wanted to really pay him back for that and also not feel guilty asking him for his advice and probably a little help doing the stair banisters. I mentioned those to him yesterday while we were on the phone and he said that's no problem. Whenever I'm ready, but after he heals up. He would probably have done all of that cleanup himself, even at his age, but he just had an angioplasty and he's walking around with his arm in a sleeve and dried blood on his hand.
I still have to mow my back yard and do a few other things before we get hit 5 straight days near 100 degrees, so now I won't have to break my back getting everything done before the brutal heat makes its way back to us.
This summer really sucks.
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I saw that. OMG my heart was pounding just watching. I've been stalked by big guard dogs before, but this????? That was CLOSE. It could gave gone wrong so many times. My god.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
Grizzlies are quite common in Alberta but that was a little strange. They don't usually come that close. But the lady did all the right things. Make herself appear larger and make a lot of loud noises. The people at the camp ground heard her and came out to help.
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Quote:
Originally posted by JAYNEZTOWN:
Alberta, Canada
Grizzly country is no place to go for a walk with your dog and no bear spray
https://x.com/MagneticNorse/status/2070237921462911466#m
You can walk your dog in grizzly country but I wonder. For it to get so close to a person, maybe the bear had cubs near by. I think it is still breeding season and so that could be why the bear responded like it did.
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