Here in Ontario we are usually fairly lucky with our weather, at least in our area. We don't suffer any extremes, usually plenty snow in winter and humidity in summer, but nothing that remotely compares to some of the climate changes and natural disasters that have happened elsewhere in the world. That is until this weekend.
I was up late Friday night, supposedly working on future postings for my blog, but actually playing games on the computer. The only hours I can guarantee not to be interrupted are those after midnight. Consequently; I was determined to sleep in on the following lazy Saturday morning, but it was not to be. It starts with the dog woofing at some stray critter trespassing on the property. Neighbourhood cats like to sashay back & forth in front of the picture window, just for the fun of seeing the dog froth at the mouth. Anyway, with me pretending to sleep through the woofing, Rob gets up to let him out, only to come bounding back upstairs a few minutes later exclaiming "Kel, wake up you're not going to believe this" What I don't believe is that he is willing to entertain a death wish in order to disturb my sleep.
Whilst letting the dog out he had noticed that the ground underneath one of our Blue Spruces was heaving alarmingly in the heavy wind. These trees are huge, at least 30 feet tall, and for one of them to be swaying so much that the ground above the roots was lifting noticeably - like mini earthquakes running through the grass - was a concern. Not much I can do about it though, I mutter something about keeping the kids out of the sunroom (which is in the direct path of the swaying tree) and roll over and go back to sleep.
Should have known the cat would have other ideas. This one is my cat - he won't go to anyone else - and because he was spooked by the wind, came up to see me. He wouldn't settle beside me, oh no he had to plonk his weight (at least 15lb) down, either over my protesting bladder, or on my chest, squeezing the air out of my lungs. Kick him off, and try again for sleep which is ever more elusive.
Next interruption, Grady is looking for underwear and socks, and I hear Rob tell him to check the basket of laundry on our room. The rat bastard knows dam well there isn't one, but this is his roundabout, sneakified way of making sure I won't go back to sleep. I realise at this point, there isn't a hope in hell I'm getting any peace so I reluctantly join the rest of the family downstairs watching the tree. Gotta give them credit, they are easily amused.
I take a glance out the window in time to see the ground shift beneath the tree. Holy Crap, he wasn't joking. The tree is now at a definite tilt, and moving precariously with each gust of wind. The ground isn't just shifting, large areas of dirt and turf are lifting almost a foot in the air and then settling again as the tree sways back and forth. Now I am definitely awake, and I haven't even got my first coffee. I turn on the weather channel to hear a warning of widespread tornadoes in central & southern Ontario. We're equipped to handle blizzards, not tornadoes, was it too early for a shot of something stronger in my coffee ?
We continued the vigil on the tree, at least twice we stood there experiencing heart palpitations, fully expecting it to go over, but fortunately the winds eventually died down and the tree stayed put. We have never seen that happen before, so I don't know, maybe those Mayans and their end of world predictions were actually on to something
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