On June 17, 2014, a storm with 70-mile-per-hour winds blasted through our city.  It ripped up a linden tree and pitched it on top of our garage.

Our back yard looks magical, doesn’t it?  All that pretty green. But there is a scrunched garage beneath it.

We wandered outside bleary-eyed.  No power.  No coffee.  No, no, no. Nothing.

I couldn’t face reality.  I rushed to the coffeehouse.  “Two Epic Sumatras please.”

We sat down and waited for the tree guys.

They worked hard and fast in an emergency.

Trees were down all over the city, but our wrecked garage was voted “worst of the month” by the insurance inspector.

When the tree guys heard another tree creaking across the street, they cut it down gratis.  They were like firemen.

We had to look at the garage whenever we sat in the back yard all summer.  I stopped sitting in the back yard.

The garage contractors finally demolished and removed the remains in August.

They began building the new garage in mid-October.

It was a very cold end of October when they finished.

Climate change, my dears.

We feel much better now that the garage is built.

And to quote R.E.M.’s “Half a World Away”:

Oh, this lonely world is wasted
Pathetic eyes, high-alive
Blind eye that turns to see
The storm it came up strong
It shook the trees and blew away our fear
I couldn’t leave it here
To go it alone, hold it along
Haul it along and hold it
Go it alone hold it along
Hold

And here’s the video: