At the beginning of February, the house at the end of our cove had a chimney fire. It was very expensive for the owner, but no people or animals were injured. A little over a week later, a giant tree fell in the street in front of the fire survivor’s house. It blocked off traffic and everyone in the neighborhood was without power for 23 hours. For a week, everything was peaceful. This morning, we woke up to a full creek and tracked it to a water break at Northshore. Northshore was closed and our typically quiet neighborhood became a major traffic area. For no good reason, people circled through our cove all day. Then, as suddenly as the loud, fast, dangerous traffic started – it stopped. Except, the scene out the front and back windows showed a stream of cars and trucks. Cars and trucks that were not moving and annoyed people who were getting out of the cars to find the source of the problem. Apparently, an 18-wheeler that shouldn’t have been on our narrow little residential roads was stuck. Guess where? Right in front of the neighbor who survived a fire and just missed getting squished by a fallen tree. Guess why? Did you look at the picture of the downed tree from last week? See those utility lines that were pulled down? Well, Comcast never came by to get those lines back where they belonged, so the big truck that was already struggling on a tiny street became tangled in Comcast cables. The police eventually made it to the scene of the problem and the entire path through our neighborhood had to be cleared so an 18-wheeler could BACK UP the entire route. That truck driver deserves a gold medal for driving under difficult conditions.

I’m starting to wonder if the neighbor who survived the fire is living in a house built over an Indian cemetery. I’m certain that he is glad February is almost over.