Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Hazardously Askew

During the big windstorm back in December, Mark saw a shed from elsewhere in the neighborhood rolling rather spectacularly down the street. We had some damage, but our shed was still in place.


Mostly, anyway. It had wiggled several inches to the side and sat a little crooked, and the doors weren't quite straight, but it wasn't wildly catawampus. And in the midst of everything else, it was pretty to ignore the shift. So we did.

Until a couple of weeks ago, that is, when I returned home to find our shed flipped upside-down in the back yard. We certainly hadn't had the hurricane-force winds of December 1, but because the shed wasn't quite aligned, the wind had a way in. And because it wasn't anchored, that was enough. Even being just a little askew was enough to throw it off.


It's a pretty big shed, and heavy. Mark and I certainly couldn't manage it on our own. We called friends, who came over to help roll it back. The structure had been weakened a bit in the process, and got just a bit further askew, but not much. Our shed back in place, we were grateful for our friends, and happy and at ease again. We hoped we could get the doors back on and all would be well.



Hoped. As in past-tense. As in something that was true at some previous point but is true no more.

Hoped, past-tense, because it is windy again. Specifically, "Wind from SSW at 15mph gusting to 21mph."

And, once again, even just that little wind was enough to pick up the shed and roll it over.


I am reminded, yet again, of Susan Scott and Ernest Hemingway and Jon Acuff. How did our shed get into our back yard? "Gradually, then suddenly," I am reminded, too, of times when I have felt flipped suddenly like a turtle -- sometimes through no fault of my own, but other times clearly the result of my own small steps.

Metaphor abound.

2 comments:

Kathleen Allison said...

I know this is off point...but...is that your CAR in the first pic...the one with the basketball-hoop through the back window???

Debi said...

It is technically my husband's car, but yeah. It was a really big wind.

http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=18321768&itype=storyID

The guy who replaced the car window was thorough in vacuuming out the glass, but glass just keeps wiggling out from the many cracks and crevices all over the vehicle. We'll be cleaning out glass pieces for years to come.