12 Hours

Friday started like this -- at my parents' house, reunited with my sewing machine, playing with some new porthole blocks (made using Jodie's tutorial). I made such blocks and sewed them together into a table runner top, with plans to make the backing in the afternoon and quilt the table runner later in the weekend, before returning to Michigan.

But 12 hours later, Friday ended like this. Well, not like this exactly, because it was dark out by 10.30 pm when the power went out and we heard a large thud. The derecho storm that pummeled the DC area caused a tree to fall on my parents' house. No one in the house -- 2-legged or 4-legged -- was harmed, which is the most important thing.

Friday night was very long, with lots of moving furniture, clipping and clearing (a small number of) tree branches, waiting on hold for hours with the insurance company, and calming terrified animals. The fire department arrived pretty quickly (especially given the number of fallen trees and unpassable roads in the neighborhood) and determined that the house was still safe, provided we stay away from the side that was hit. Neighbors were extraordinarily helpful -- calling the fire department, providing tarps, bringing over helmets and head lamps (neighbors who go for spelunking? very useful in such circumstances), helping to clear out the affected rooms and salvage what we could, trimming and clearing about 100 pounds of tree branches, getting cars out of the way, etc. The local police conducted neighborhood sweeps around 4 am (I wasn't sleeping anyways...) to make sure everyone was ok.

My brother showed up at 6 am on Saturday morning, at which point we could see the full damage. I christened what had been my brother's old room "the sunroom." My mom quickly edited it to "the undesired sunroom." To be fair, it was a terrarium for a bit, but by mid-day Saturday Tyson's Tree had removed the tree (they have a very impressive operation, for anyone looking for tree removal in the DC area) and it was a sunroom, albeit one with blue-tarp filtered light. Yesterday the damaged area was boarded up, and now it's a matter of getting contractors in to assess, estimate, and finally rebuild.

Needless to say, no more sewing occurred over the weekend. I'm now back in Michigan, where sewing may resume if the heat relents anytime soon...