This blog post has nothing to do with my intention of finalizing my blog postings from our trip to Europe.
Yes, eventually I will get to this, but our weekend was too eventful not to report and show some pictures of our August Long Weekend storm.
This weekend was the perfect time to plan our long overdue Garage Sale. We spent an entire week preparing. Emptying the basement and the garage and dragging out anything that was no longer of value to us, but could bring in some extra money for our next travel plans.
The forecast called for temperatures of between 26 and 30 degrees, the perfect days for the Big Sale.
After spending the entire day on Friday setting up our tables and displaying our goods, we already made a few sales prior to the official opening time of 4:00 pm.
No, Ramiro did not give in on the $ 300.00 offer to buy his entire comic book collection. He may regret this later.
Sales went well Friday night. Saturday also started out great. For every customer who spent over $ 10.00 there was a nice cold drink waiting in the ice filled coolbox. If they spent over $ 50.00 they may help themselves to a cold Beer.
Sales were going so well, that we discussed continuing on the Holiday Monday.
By 5:00 pm it started to get pretty dark, the wind picked up and started to blow things away.
I tried to get Ramiro's attention to prepare to move things in the garage. But his comments were: "It's not here yet". I started moving boxes under the tables, and prepared the large tarps, so they could get thrown over the tables when the time came.
Customers continued to come and our neighbour had a nice chat with Ramiro.
I was getting anxious when I heard the thunder in the distance and interrupted our neighbour sort of like "help us move stuff, or get the hell out of here".
Finally I got Ramiro's attention and he helped me cover the tables, tucking the edges in on the bottom.
Then a big gush of wind blew everything off again and the hail stone started to come down, while thunder filled our ears.
I hate thunderstorms and hail put holes in my head, I am going inside.
Ramiro called that he needed my help. Well, Sorry buddy, I needed your help 20 minutes ago, but there was no urgency. I'm out of here.
I ran inside and started to close the doors and windows, when I saw the lights fixtures swinging from the wind, while Ramiro stayed out there trying to rescue his antique camera collection, the TV and other items that are sensitive to moisture.
Hail stones the size of golf balls started to fly around and for a moment I thought they would break the windows. I see tree branches flying around.
Where am I to go. Should I hide in the basement, or should I keep an eye out for Ramiro, who in the mean time had put a hard hat on his hat, to protect him from the hailstones?
There was no fighting it. After 15 minutes he decided to give up.
The power was out and the wind died down.
What a mess. I went outside and saw leaves stuck against the walls and branches everywhere.
A big tree in front of our driveway had broekn in half and blocked the road.
Without electricity I was not able to make that pork roast I had planned for the evening. A sandwich would have to do.
After a sad moment whimpering about all the damaged items and the realization that these are all only materials things we were no longer attached to, or we would not sell them, we decided to go outside and join the rest of the neighbours, accessing the situation.
Most of the roads in the village were blocked as trees had fallen down, several of them dragging power lines with them.
After a call to the power company, indicating our situation, we learned that there was damage province wide, and in those area where there was an emergency, such as people still in their vehicles with power lines on top of them, help would be offered first.
Ironically we met more neighbours this evening than we have met in all the 19 years we have lived here. There was a certain cameradery.
We went back inside and lit up some candles, discussing our plans for tomorrow.
It was still light outside and we decided to drive out and see where else there had been damage. On the radio we learned that the Big Jamboree, held every year in Camrose, had done a lot more damage. Due to the strong winds, the stage had collapsed, killing at least one person and seriously injuring another 75 or so.
We drove the route where Ramiro had planted his Garage Sale signs and removed each and every one of them. The hail had literally chopped them up. It was no point continuing with the sale, we had some serious cleaning up to do. In many places we saw spots of ice along the road as if it was winter.
This is Alberta, we have storms like this every year. but as far as I'm concerned, this is the most serious storm since the snow storm of May 22, 1997. When a feet of snow landed on the trees, tearing down at least a dozen of them on our property, just as we were planning for Ramiro's 50th outdoor Birthday party.
There will be more storms, and there will be more damage in the future. The main thing is that we are not injured and we still have a house to live in. It oculd have been a lot worse.
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