Reality check

I've always felt anxiety and sympathy for people who live in the path of hurricanes. Many of the workshops I've taught have been in those areas, and some of my students have been hard hit in the past. We had a taste of that here in Ohio a week ago Sunday, hurricane-force winds, but fortunately, no rain. Nevertheless, the wind smacked down a 70-plus foot tree in my little woods and left the top of it resting on broken window panes in our dining room window. I had just walked through the dining room to my enclosed porch to read, when I heard the whump of the tree landing and the sound of breaking glass. We were pretty lucky at that. Even with no power for four days, we did have phone service and hot water. We lost all the food in the refrigerator. We both read by candlelight and kept a few perishables in an ice chest. We didn't get our Internet cable back until a few hours ago, so there hasn't been any emailing or blogging going out from here.

I did manage to drive to Cincinnati to pick up copies of Confident Color for my contributors, but I had no way to notify them I had them. The distributor hadn't shipped book orders yet, so I still don't know when it will be on the bookshelves or at Amazon.com. Just have to wait and see, I guess.

In the meantime, the tree was removed on Saturday, and we cleaned up as much as we could on the patio, where all the furniture was smashed flat. Tomorrow the glazier is coming to repair the windows. Lots of other stuff to finish up before we're back to normal. At least we don't have mud!