Rosslyn Redux

Tag: Thunderstorm

  • Mighty Winds

    Mighty Winds

    Not-so-formidable fence bludgeoned by maple limb, but mostly intact.

    Early evening, maybe 6:00 pm or so the skies darkened prematurely. I mean, really darkened. And the wind whistled then whipped. I blasted around the house battening windows and doors, cranked the shade umbrella contraption (what’s the proper name for those?) over the dining table on the back deck, and lowered the roman shades in the room where Griffin was napping in the hopes that he wouldn’t notice the rapidly approaching storm. Thunderstorms are enemy number one for our sensitive hound.

    Boom! The skies opened up and the rain lashed vertically at the house. I literally couldn’t see out the windows. Like being in a carwash that’s gone totally berserk.

    Lightning strobed and thunder exploded almost concurrently. Again. And again. Still nothing visible outside the windows, so I surveyed the house room-to-room for any windows I’d overlooked. None.

    https://twitter.com/RosslynRedux/status/1145698032698167297

    In the good news department, Rosslyn was incredibly fortunate. All buildings escaped the merciful wrath. Well, almost. Upon entering our master bedroom, I discovered water cascading from the ceiling. So that wasn’t ideal.

    Once the storm passed over Essex and out onto Lake Champlain I headed outside to survey the damage. Those photos destruction/debris photos were taken then (except for the one post cleanup photo in the Twitter post.) It was clear that some of the roof slate had been damaged and two areas of the roof allowed rain water to enter the building. I’m sure there’ll be more to say on this in the near future, but for now I’m chalking it up to, “It could’ve been worse!”

    Nobody ever died of optimism.

    In closing, a few more photos including a fence that literally blew over, snapping the fence posts, and a gate that yielded to the mighty winds.

    • Mighty winds and tree damage, June 2019
    • Mighty winds and tree damage, June 2019
    • Mighty winds and gate damage, June 2019
    • Mighty winds and gate damage, June 2019
    • Mighty winds and fence damage, June 2019
    • Mighty winds and fence damage, June 2019
    • Mighty winds and tree damage, June 2019

    Testing twitter account

  • Battered by Power-Outing Thunderstorm

    Call it climate change or call it multi-millennial weather cycles, yet another freak thunderstorm or the cost of care-taking an old house, a test of will and endurance or man (and woman) versus nature. No matter what you call it, the reality is that we are experiencing increasingly erratic meteorological patterns in this usually bucolic and quite predictable Adirondack Coast village.

    Last night I was tidily tucked into my seat at the Depot Theatre in Westport, NY enjoying opening night of Boeing, Boeing. Back in Essex at Rosslyn my bride and nieces were slammed with explosive winds and rain. A thunderstorm, according to the weather app on my mobile phone, though thunder and lightning apparently skipped the show. Nevertheless, the power flickered once, twice and then was extinguished.

    For a few hours of sweltering humidity they fumbled in the dark, trying to figure out why the still-new Kohler generator installed a summer ago wasn’t working. Again.

    This morning we wonder together why the generator has never worked properly despite repeat attempts to identify and resolve the problem(s). The contractor that installed it, the gas company who connected it, and the manufacturer who built it have failed us. Disappointing. And frustrating. Beyond explanation! And yet an increasingly familiar aspect of home ownership in this brave new world.

    Is this the new normal?