Nature's Fireworks

Wow! I think we've gotten a reprieve from the rain, finally! At first, all the storms were romantic and gave me time to reflect, then they got annoying, then they were damaging and frightening for a lot of people. Then, it was sunny for a day, or maybe an afternoon - I'm not sure. Either way, it looks like we're going to have a dry and sunny weekend for the festive weekend we have planned... unlike the Fourth earlier this week.

The holiday started out innocent enough. I got up early and did some cleaning before heading over to Gina's for an afternoon cookout with her family. The plan was to hang out there for a while, eat, and possibly join up with some friends in DC. When Mark and Gina's mom started the grilling and Gina's grandparents arrived, phase one was well underway... except that the weather forecast was calling for rain to come moving in quickly. So, we all pitched in and managed to get the food on the table as the menacing clouds rolled in and opened up in a heavy downpour. It was tasty.

About ten minutes into dinner, however, Gina's grandmother was talking about how closely she was watching the large red maple in Gina's backyard. The wind had been buffeting all the trees around the neighborhood for a while, and she was worried about it striking the house. Gina had been jokingly urging the power to go out after it blinked a few times. Seconds later, a third of the red maple split apart with a crack that sounded like lightning and went crashing down, landing across the fence dividing the yard between Gina's house and her neighbor's. It fell in the best way possible, narrowly missing both houses, but it was still a shock. In rapid succession, the power flickered and died, the result of another branch severing some power lines a block down the road. We all sat in stunned silence for a bit, while Gina apologized profusely for joking about the power outage earlier.

As it turns out, no one was hurt in any of the damage in the immediate area, and the tree didn't do much damage to their neighbor's house. Gina was without power for nearly a day and a half, though, and when I got back to my apartment that night, mine was also gone. Needless to say, we didn't venture down to the Mall for any fireworks, since more storms were on their way to downtown DC. Instead, we drove and walked to Kensington's display and managed to catch the last few minutes of it in a high school parking lot. This was definitely one of the more memorable Independence Days for me!

I've got some pictures of the tree and the aftermath on Flickr now, too.

And now, it's time to enjoy the sunny weekend!