Thankful It Wasn't Worse

The remnants of Ike swept through Ohio last night and left most of us without power, along with all the destruction that 70 mph winds bring. A live power line is still on the ground in the back of my yard. The firemen threw old tires on it and put up caution tape yesterday when it came down, to keep people away. We were lucky here, because the electric got turned on this morning, whereas a lot of people won't have any for a few days. I can't imagine living along the gulf coast and seeing the full force of the hurricane up close.

In the upper right corner of this picture you can see part of a large pine tree, the basis for the name of the road, Lone Pine Road, as it sits tall and proud right at the bend of the road where it starts up the hill. Sadly, when we went out to the land tonight we discovered that the wind had snapped this grand evergreen in half, and now its top laying was in the road. It was such a beautiful part of the landscape whenever we would sit and admire the surroundings, especially in winter when everything else was either buried under snow or everything was the same shade of depressing brown. Things will look a lot different now. There was also a massive oak tree just a ways up the road that blew over. It was also a bit of a landmark, though not in such a majestic way... It was where the landowner had his "No hunting" signs posted year after year. The power of nature, huh?