WINTER IN THE VALLEY

I awakened about 5:00 a.m. to the sound of rushing wind, garbage cans and lids being tossed about, and pop cans clanking and scraping. Nervous Nellie whined and jiggled her gate lock. I said, “Well, it’s not going to get better while we lie here.” So, I dashed out the back door, freed Nellie and put her in the house, then commenced to gather the garbage cans at the back door and put them in the shop. I left the strewn pop cans for someone else to pick up but looked for and found a garbage can lid that had already migrated to the street side of the neighbor’s driveway. Since Thursday is garbage day, one of our garbage cans was out at the street awaiting 6:00 a.m. pick up. The lid had already blown off, the can had tipped, and the contents were strewn. I felt fortunate to be able to rescue the receptacle and lid. By this time Mike was also up and surveying the area – difficult in the dark. We climbed back into our warm bed, but of course sleep eluded us. And Nellie kept coming in to check on us – or so I thought. When checking gave way to out and out frantic licking of my face, I finally got the message and we ran for the door. Once we were up and around, Mike checked outside for damage and picked up trash.

The radio says the valley has a wind advisory until 10:00 tonight with gusts to 45 mph. Mike says they’ve been harder than that. Despite the wind, the day is a sunny and beautiful 48 degrees -- hard to believe that our neighbors at higher elevations are struggling with snow conditions, but apparently this is the case. They announced no school in Moscow and other places.

Mike called Carol and Max in Memphis last night to ask how they had survived the tornadoes. They are fine and their property sustained no damage. The shopping mall that was damaged is about five miles from them.