Sunday, February 19, 2012

Micro Burst

Mardi Gras is here and I'm off through Wednesday. So far, working would have been better. I'd arranged to get a set of term papers in my Writing in Psychology class on Thursday, and some quizzes that I could grade over the break, but everyone else decided that I'd have so much time over the break that I could do stuff for them too. Letters of recommendation, IRB proposals, QEP reports. You don't even want to know what all those letters stand for.

Friday I put in a long 14 hour day, hoping to get enough done so I'd have a few days off at the end of the break. I planned a good 8 hour marathon on Saturday but the world had other ideas. I worked all morning and had a good head start, then decided to lie down for a short nap. That was my last peaceful moment of the day.

Suddenly we got hit by what are called "straight line" winds, but which I've also heard described as a micro burst. The winds seemed to explode out of the woods and our roof sounded like a war zone as it took a pounding. A few moments later the electricity went off. A few minutes after that, Lana came to tell me I had a ceiling leak in my home office. No nap for me.

We had small hail, and thunder and lightning the rest of the day, as well as periods of heavy rain, so I wasn't able to get up on the roof. Hopefully I can this morning. The electricity came back after about 10 hours finally, but the Satellite TV won't load so it may be that the dish took a hit. I ran my laptop long enough to edit a few more student papers but I'm behind on what I planed to get done.

We did take a drive though, to see what else got hit. Electricity was out all over and apparently some houses were damaged pretty severely by the winds. We stopped at the second hand store and I bought a few books that I'll tell you about at some point. Since cooking was out, we got Popeye's Fried Chicken and came home to play Mad Libs and Trivial Pursuit. The evening was good by candlelight, but now today we start picking up the pieces. I won't be online much.
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31 comments:

the walking man said...

Isn't a Micro Burst a tornado that doesn't touch down? The offer of years now still stands send me you papers that need grading and i will run them through the Durfee Decimal Grading System (yes I now have named it) and have them back to you in two hours Charles. Be Advised though i am on happy pills from the surgery still so it might be sooner than two hours.

Actually except for the chicken, candle light and games with Lana it sounds like on effed up night.

Lisa said...

Glad that you are okay. Another blogger friend also reported heavy storm and a black out. We are having bursts of constant rain here.

Lisa said...

..constant bursts of rain.

Charles Gramlich said...

Mark, apparently what we had was winds that came suddenly down to ground level, then exploded outward from that center, breaking off trees all through the woods. I'll take into account your grading offer. :)

Oceangirl, at least we didn't have any damage to the house, other than the tv dish and one area of roof.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Hopefully it didn't fry anything else! We get those here now and then - scary stuff.

Deka Black said...

Uf.hope you and lana are well and unharmed!

Ron Scheer said...

Before you make another to-do list like that one, check the weather forecast for divine interventions...

Charles Gramlich said...

Alex,nasty little buggers they are.

Deka, Yes, thankfully.

Ron Scheer, yes, I think I need to.

sage said...

I was at first envious that you get Mardi Gras off--then I got to the rest. I hope things with your house are easily fixed and that you get some break.

Ty said...

Sorry to hear about all the troubles. Weather can be a bitch sometimes. Good luck with the roof and patching that office.

G. B. Miller said...

Man, that is major crappiness on Father Nature's part.

Hopefully your area doesn't turn out like my state did back in October when two-thirds of the state was out for up to two weeks.

Cloudia said...

Gosh! Wishing you both the best in this situation Just remember: your house and all you own will not sink within the hour, if ever! Hope that helps...

Aloha from Waikiki
Comfort Spiral

> < } } ( ° >
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Travis Cody said...

Wind sucks. I hope your damage isn't too severe.

Richard Prosch said...

Holy cow! It's too early for March to come in like a lion. I wonder what they say if Feb. goes out like one? Hang tough, amigo!

ivan said...

To risk a cliche, "That sucks."

...But I hear on Canadian TV news that the Mardi Gras was an overall success.

Ah well. Allez votre!

laughingwolf said...

that'll teach ya ta nap, ya lazy bum! ;) lol

glad damage was minimal...

i like moving weather, but not the kinds that destroy things :(

not made it to mardi gras as yet... guess bare girly tits are not motivation enough? :O

now, the beads....

Charles Gramlich said...

Sage, I spent some time on the roof yesterday. I think things are OK, though our satellite TV disk is smashed.

Ty, weather likes to let us know who is boss on occassion.

G., yeah, we were like that after a couple of hurricanes that brushed by here. Two weeks without electricity is tough.

Cloudia, thanks. We weathered it pretty well.

Travis Cody, we were lucky, others around us got it worse.

Richard, this is the first one we've had right on top of us since we've been here, though I've heard about 'em elsewhere.

Ivan, TV is out so I didn't watch any news about Mardi Gras. tuesday is actually the really big day.

Laughingwolf, I always caught the plastic cups because they are usuable again! :)

pattinase (abbott) said...

Take care, Charles. Sounds scary.

Erik Donald France said...

Oh man, wild month for cure. Suckfest for the most part as far as things going haywire. A lot of people around here are sick on top of that. But at least this area is out of the drought.

Have always lived in a tornado zone no matter where I go in these here States. Well, here's to a break within the break!

BernardL said...

Nature is a fickle princess with claws and fangs. I hope you don't have too much roof damage.

Charles Gramlich said...

Patti, thankee.

Erik, glad to hear about some drought amelioration. Was getting pretty dry down there.

Bernard, fickle indeed.

SzélsőFa said...

aww, it's good to hear the storm caused no serious injuries to you, your family and to the house.
a candle-lit evening with games sounds romantic enough :))

Jessica Ferguson said...

I can't help thinking about a silly ad our local tv station runs: "Weather is a fact of life here in Southwest Louisiana."

I guess weather is a fact of life in your neck of the woods too. Sorry you're having to work through Mardi Gras. Glad your not in rubbles from the Micro Burst.

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

You got power back after 10 hours! I thought that sort of thing happened only in my country. I hope everything's back to normal, Charles.

Barrie said...

That really does sound scary. I've never heard the expression "straight wind" before. Hope you get caught up faster than expected so that you get a break during your break. ;)

Charles Gramlich said...

Szelsofa, it was fun. We hadn't done that in quite a while.

Jess, I took all of yesterday off so that as nice.

Prashant, Lots and lots of trees. I imagine the lines must have been down in more than one place.

Barrie, I hadn't heard of it until it happened to us.

Steve Malley said...

What is it about the best laid plans of mice and men?? :/

Glad you're both all right. Know that kinda sucks... :)

Erik Donald France said...

p.s. you can look up American Civil War soldiers by name here:

http://www.civilwar.nps.gov/cwss/soldiers.cfm

With regiments, the battles are revealed.

Golden Eagle said...

I'm glad to hear you're okay and the damage isn't too severe.

I've never heard of micro bursts or straight winds, but it sounds like they have a lot of potential destructive power.

Charles Gramlich said...

Steve Malley, that storm made me feel particularly mouse like.

Erik, cool. I did have some ancestors in the Civil war.

Golden eagle, apparently they are pretty nasty. I guess we never had a name for 'em before.

Voidwalker said...

Crazy stuff. I can't blame you for not going on the roof during it all lol.

Last micro burst near me took out a glass dome at the center of my nearest shopping mall... pretty scary stuff