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It was a dark and stormy night ...

Last night was our first night as a family braced against a violent storm.
Luckily, even though the storm was the worst we've experienced in the five years we've lived in this house, it didn't damage our property other than knocking down a tree in the woods behind our house and blowing down some limbs.
But the night was scary, for me mostly. Cherish woke during the storm but didn't get out of bed, and Willow slept through the whole howling thing.
We anticipated the storm, so Cherish asked that I set up the Pack-N-Play in our bedroom so Willow wouldn't be alone when the thunder and lightning hit. I charged up my phone and got our emergency radio and flashlight ready.
The storm hit a little after 1 a.m., and I was up for it. It was a wall of wind and rain, really, with few lightning strikes. Something cracked in the backyard, so I peeked out. I couldn't see far because of the slashing rain, but Willow's swing was flying parallel to the ground.
During the worst part of the storm, the wind pushed our gas grill about six inches.
Oddly, the cheap, plastic bistro set we have on the back deck hardly budged. The plastic and empty planters we have out back didn't move either. Maybe we should live in a house of plastic.
When I spotted the grill scooting in the wind, my fear peaked, and I prepared to shuffle Cherish and Willow to our safe spot.
But the storm quickly died. The power never went off, and the satellite TV only froze a minute or two. Radar showed the storm wall, and its 60 mph winds, had passed.
So I went back into the bedroom and whispered into Cherish's ear, "It's passed us. No more tonight."
Willow snored.
About 10 minutes after the storm had passed us, Robertson County's storm sirens blared, I suppose to alert us to the nice sprinkling of rain that lured me to sleep for the rest of the night.
And, yes, Willow slept through the sirens too.

Our neighbors
Even though we escaped real damage, our neighbors down the road, and probably throughout the subdivision, didn't. One of our neighbors had a tree fall on their carport, damaging their truck beneath.
I don't know what else happened, but I'm taking Willow out for a morning walk.
The weather is nice on this morning after the storm.
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