Just How Lucky

I knew I got off easy from the ice storm that wreaked such havoc here in the Northeast. My power outage was measured in hours, not days. The phone was back soon, too. The storm derailed my Friday schedule and plans. It reminded me of the risks of not having a generator, and made me think about what options and resources I had at hand to help keep pipes from freezing. But the bottom line this time around was that I was lucky. I got off easy.

Monday afternoon, I saw for myself just how lucky I was. I drove west on the Mass Pike. For a 20-25 mile stretch between Westfield and Lee, somewhere between a third and half of the trees on the south side of the road were shattered, tops broken and gone. Tree trunks ended in the rough, raw end of a broken stick, 20, 30, 40 feet from the ground.

It was visually shocking. Stretch after stretch, mile after mile, clumps and clumps and clumps of 15, 20 and more trees all with their tops snapped, torn, dangling, missing. I passed hundreds, thousands. In between, partial destruction. Ten percent of the trees, a third of them, sometimes more. I doubt I saw 20,000 topped trees, but 10,000 seems conservative.

There was damage on the north side of the road, too. Broken branches, fallen trees. Birch after birch after birch...big ones...lay on the ground, stretching toward the road. There were some topped trees, too, but the south side of the road kept drawing my attention. These were just the trees I could see from the road. My mind croggles when I think of how far back the destruction might have stretched. Hell, my mind croggled at the destruction I saw.

It was all too easy to imagine, to envision, that kind of destruction of Toad Woods, not so far away. It could have so easily happened, given the destructiveness of the storm. It did happen...just not to my property. Monday I saw just how lucky I was, and that was lucky, indeed.

On the road again...

Yesterday's jaunt through the Berkshires was the first leg of my 100,000 mile trip. I'm calling it that because the odds are high that I'll flip the odometer past that magic number before the next time I pull the car into the garage at Toad Woods. Lansing, Battle Creek, Chicago, Minneapolis, and then the reverse.

Big fun ahead: Gavi's 16th birthday is the driving reason for the Minneapolis leg of the trip. My presence is her present. I love prezzies that benefit the giver as well as the receiver. :-)

I'll also pick up the copper sun from the sun, moon & stars sculpture that galacticvoyeur has kindly been storing for me for years. Low gas prices and the need for a car to carry it away drove my decision to drive rather than fly or take the train.

I expect to be at dreamshark's & Richard's Caroling Party Sunday evening, and hope to catch up with markiv1111 and other MippleStipple friends there. It's a short trip -- in Thursday or Friday night, depending on the weather and the week's work load, then back to Chicago on Tuesday.

Then Christmas in Battle Creek, in the house where I celebrated every Christmas of my childhood from the age of 3. And Boxing Day with my sister in Lansing. Yep, big fun, alright.

carnyjack is joining me for the Minneapolis leg of the trip. It will be good to share that with him, and nice to have someone I can hand the driving over to for a stretch.

But today...today I am in Corning, New York, to see amazing glass. The Corning Museum of Glass opened 10 minutes ago. I've heard nothing but fabulous things about the place, and the two display cases here in the Days Inn lobby that are filled with works from their glass studio live up to the promise of amazing glass ahead. Pictures eventually, I hope. After another 500 miles of driving at the very least, and probably more.

Please note: this message is friends-locked to avoid telling the world that I'm away from home for an extended period of time. Minneapolis and Chicago friends are welcome to mention it in non-public forums to others who are likely to be interested. My travels are not a secret; I've mentioned them in several public LJ posts over the last week or two. But the specifics of the days involved and so on are not intended for the world's eye. Thanks!

January 2, 2009 update: I've unlocked all of the trip-related messages now that I'm home, home again.