You're NOT going to believe TODAY'S backyard calamity!

[Redstone]

My friend LynnZ observed last night that there's never a dull moment around casa Redstone, and boy, is she right.

Just yesterday, we had The Drama And Excitement Of The Menacing And Possibly Rabid Striped Stinker: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=3825470&mesg_id=3825470

I figured after that, we'd had our ration of weirdness for at least a week, and it would be safe to take the Little guy to the library this afternoon while Mrs R. was working in the back yard, gardening and raking and so on.

But no, we didn't even get a day's worth of reprieve. When we got back, we found some of the neighbors in the yard, tending to a worse-for-the-wear Mrs R, who was blithely raking away when a goddamned tree fell on her!

I shit you not. The top fifteen feet of a 30-foot chokecherry tree just split off and BAM! whapped her upside the head (or I guess that would be downside the head, since it was falling down, not rising up).

I asked her if she had "seen stars" and when she told me she had, I immediately hauled her off the the clinic despite her strident (and somewhat annoying) protests that she was just fine, OK, ready to go in the house and make dinner, and all that. (I don't take any chances when someone might have a concussion, having dealt with four of the sons of bitches myself, which is why I can't remember anything. Really. It's NOT the drugs, it's the four concussions.)

Anyway, everything seems to be OK, though I have to keep an eye on her for a couple of days and wake her up every two hours tonight to make sure she's asleep rather than unconscious, which won't be hard to do given that I don't sleep much more than an hour at a stretch anyway. But I bet she's going to be annoyed at being awake and aware of her headache instead of asleep and not feeling it. But you do have to be vigilant with this stuff.

So, my intelligent and perceptive fellow DUers, I need your help. What the HELL do you think is going to happen next? I ask for your educated guess so we can have some kind of fighting chance to look out for the next bizarritude and get out of the way before anyone gets clobbered, bitten, lightning-struck, or God knows what.

Sheesh. Sometimes I wonder about this house (and yard)...

Redstone

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

1. UNBELIEVABLE!!

Have you considered moving?? Or at least staying out of the backyard!

Hope she feels better soon!

[gardenista]

2. Glad Mrs. R is ok! Now, I hate to say this, but get ready for #3.

You know how these things go...

[roguevalley]

3. God grief! I am happy things are back on line. However, your house

is trying to tell you something.

[Elidor]

4. Glad she's all right

I've had a couple of concussions and wouldn't wish them on anybody. Thank goodness I live up to my name.

[madeline_con]

5. Invest in lightning rods....

take no chances!

:(

[cally]

6. I'm glad Mrs. R is OK

and that you had neighbors come so quickly to help.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. My friend has always told me never to ask "What can happen next?!"

as you are tempting providence or something like that. Kinda like saying like "Bring it on!"

P.S. Glad that Mrs. R. is OK.

[LynzM]

8. Geez, dude.

Egads. I'm very glad she is ok... I've never had a concussion, but have had the 'hit hard enough to taste metallic' going on. Yuck. I hope that she is totally ok in a few days, and that your house doesn't throw anymore unexpected stuff your way.

Insanity with the chicken?
Foxes, speaking in tongues?
The Tale of Two Trout?

Who knows!

[uppityperson]

9. Yow, while I enjoy reading your posts, beware.

Maybe your house is cursed.

[yellowdogintexas]

10. It was the skunk god taking revenge. SEriously, you may wish

to offer up some sacrificial offering to Mother Nature in general, just in case.

Staying out of the back yard sounds reasonable.

Glad she is OK

[usedtobesick]

11. I hate to say this but

don't come visit us in CO until this shit is all out of your cosmic system or where ever this stuf comes from. Hope things get better soon!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

12. Omigod, my dear Redstone!

I think that it is fairly safe to say that your problems are probably OVER for now, at least!

I sure hope so, anyhow...

I'm glad Mrs. R is OK....

You might want to just lay low for awhile...just in case...

:wtf:

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Yikes!! Glad she is ok!

[Redstone]

14. Thanks, all for your relief that Mrs R is doing OK, but

I don't think that you have to worry too much that the house has it in for us (except for its uncanny ability to know when we have a few bucks in the bank, and then to generate a problem that costs however much we have, to fix the problem)...we're the only owners who have ever taken care of the place, after all.

Yes, we do have lightning rods.

No, I don't think the Skunk Gods bear any resentment toward us, given the fact that we've done so much to benefit the wildlife around here, both in general and in specific cases.

Ask LynnZ. She's been here, and I don't remember her saying the place seemed spooky....but she could just have been being polite, or I could just not have remembered her saying anything...

But anyway, thanks again for all your concern. That's one of the things I like the most about DU; when you mention a troubling circumstance, you get supportive messages not only from the people you know, but also from people you haven't had much interaction with.

THAT'S how a community is supposed to work. And it's heartening to see it working here at DU.

Good night, my friends.

Redstone

[A HERETIC I AM]

15. Do you live downstream of a dam?

Is there a herd of nervous buffalo behind a rickety fence near you? Is there an unusually rare type of Locust ready to infest your yard? How about Toads? How are you with Toads? Just checking

[Redstone]

17. Well, I there is a swamp just across the street, so I'm

keeping a real close eye on any increased frogginess in the yard. Toads, too.

No buffalo, no dam. Check.

The 17-year locusts came out last year, so we have 16 years left to go. Check.

Lightning rods, got two already. Check.

67-foot-high concrete wall between the house and the trees behind the back yard? For everything else, there's Mastercard, I suppose...

Redstone

[GoddessOfGuinness]

16. Check this out...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4311324

I'm glad Mrs Redstone is going to be ok...

[neweurope]

18. Glad Mrs. R. is ok. I think things happening is NORMAL.

Nothing bad happening is not normal but luck and we tend to not be grateful enough for it. Don't think anything else will happen; it mightg be superstition but I really do think anticipation helps things along.


--------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[In_The_Wind]

19. yee gads ~ man .... that's awful!

I'm glad Mrs. R is going to be OK!

[sendero]

20. Similar thing happened to me...

.. a couple weeks ago. I was clearing some small trees from the edge of a creek bed, with a chainsaw. I cut down a small 12-15' tree and it fell where is was s'posed to, but the vibration knocked loose a piece of deadwood (4" diameter about 6' long) and it conked me square on the head.

It knocked me down, I instinctively tossed the running chainsaw out in front of me and shouted a couple expletives in surprise. It really didn't compute, since the tree I cut fell clear.

I bled a bit, but I wasn't really hurt.

In the future, I'll look around for barely hanging deadwood. :)