I think the majority of us can agree that 2020 leaves a lot to be desired. The only thing I can think of that could be seen as a positive so far is the recently increased global awareness of race inequality. If that is the only thing we get from 2020 it may make up for all of this other crap.
Our misfortunes actually extend past 2020 into October of 2019 when the sump pump failed at our house and our basement flooded.
Bring on 2020 where in March the Covid-19 pandemic basically shut down the world. At the end of March I injured my leg. It got infected and the injury was so severe that I wound up in the hospital and even today I am still visiting the doctor weekly to clean it and ensure it is healing properly.
In May, we had a once in a half millennium storm where several dams failed and a large portion of my hometown was flooded. In addition to that, the immense amount of water brought to light a pipe leak in our front yard. You can read more about that in this post.
Then that brings us to yesterday. I wrote this post talking about how we have some nice weather on tap after some storms were set to roll through the area. I talked about how I would probably be spending a lot of time on my deck this weekend.
As you can see from the picture above, nature had other plans. I was at work about half an hour away from our house when my wife messaged me that the storms were rolling through down there. I had hoped to be home before the storms moved in, but there was much I could do.
Next thing I know I get a phone call from my wife and she is absolutely hysterical. I could barely make out what she was saying besides the words "tree" and "deck". I hung up and ran to my truck to head home.
Driving was intense. The speed limit is normally 75 MPH on this expressway. I had to slow down to less than 30 MPH and put my hazards on because the rain and wind were so hard. Many drivers were pulling off to the side of the road to wait it out, but I needed to get home to my wife!
There was debris all over the road. It was probably some of the worst weather I have ever driven in which is saying a lot for a Michigan driver.
By the time I got home @mrsbozz had calmed down and I headed outside to assess the damage. We still had another line of storms coming into the area, so I had to make my inspection quick.
The damage is pretty extensive, but in the grand scheme of things, we really got quite lucky. I will make a more proper assessment today, but it appears the deck is largely intact except for a couple of rails. It missed our air conditioning unit and I don't believe it damaged the house at all. @mrsbozz and our dog Jovi were both unharmed. What a blessing!
Our pergola is smashed to bits, much of our patio furniture is gone and there is a good chance our fire pit is also damaged. There is also a good chance I will have to have the rest of the tree cut down to avoid further incidents in the future.
Did you catch that? This was just a single branch from a large maple tree next to our house that did all of this damage!
After dinner all of the storms were past and I started cleaning up as much of the branch as I could. I got to a point where I needed to stop because the branch started shifting and I didn't want it to fall on me or further damage the deck.
I have some people coming over today to take care of the rest.
This morning on our walk we noticed quite a bit of damage at our local park as well.
At this point I don't think my sanity (or my bank account) can afford any more big disasters. Hopefully, the remainder of 2020 is much kinder to all of us!
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
