There is unrest in the forest, there is trouble with the trees

Yesterday, after spending the better part of 3 hours digging Kelly’s car out of the snow, a tree fell onto her car.  This happened sometime after I finished the job of digging the car out.  A neighbor said he saw it happen.  As he described it, it happened in slow motion, literally:  the weight of the snow on the tree simply eased it down in the direction of Kelly’s car.  In a way, this was a good thing because there does not appear to be any internal damage.

The trunk of the tree is not split.  In fact, the trunk isn’t touching the car at all, just branches.  I got into the car this morning.  No cracked windows or dents in the ceiling–at least none on the inside.  The tree is at such an angle, however, that it can possible go back up by itself.  So we are now in the process of finding out of the Homeowner’s Association can have it removed, or if we need to go through our insurance company.

Meanwhile, I logged another 3-1/2 hours of straight digging this morning between 8 am and 11:30.  I got my car completely dug out, I got more of Kelly’s car dug out.  And I cleared the walkway up to our stairs much better than I did yesterday.  Lots of people digging out this morning, not all of them pleasant, particularly those who hadn’t moved a single shovel of snow since the first flake fell.  It took me a total of 6.5 hours to dig us out completely (save for the tree, of course) and that was with relatively light snow since I did half the job in real time.  I imagine it will take longer for those people who never got started until this morning.

Here are the pictures to prove it.

I estimate at this point that I moved nearly 3 tons of snow by myself.  I get into some kind of zone when I’m out there.  I don’t feel the cold, don’t feel the weight of the snow on the shovel.  But when I got back into the house today, I could barely lift Zach up.  A very hot shower  and 800 mg of Advil later the pain is better but I can feel the muscles stiffening up.  At least I can still type.

More updates once we find out what is happening with the tree.

Originally published at Jamie’s Blog. Please leave any comments there.