Wednesday, August 30, 2023

When it rains

 A couple of posts ago I told you about our upstairs AC going out. That saga has been nothing short of a nightmare. 

Just about anyone who knows me will tell you I am not an angry person by nature. I am also extremely loyal, especially when I am treated well. If you provide a service to me, and you do it well, and you treat me well, I'm likely to be your customer for life. 

Unfortunately, that has not been the case with the provider of our HVAC services. They have lost a good customer, and the proprietor does not seem to care. 

Because I have become uncharacteristically angry, Wife has taken over communicating with this guy. 

I will leave it at that, because that's not what this post is supposed to be about. 

Rather, I am going to tell you about another mishap, this one being an act of nature. 

Wife and I were sitting in our game room late Saturday afternoon, watching a Braves game, when it started raining. We heard a few distant claps of thunder. Then, we heard a huge pop, and saw lightning out the window. 

Our electricity went out for a split second. 

The pop was loud enough to startle each of us. Wife got up and looked out the window. She called me over. 

Apparently, the pop we heard was the big oak tree in our yard being hit by lightning. When we were able to get out and look more closely, we saw bark that had flown all around, in the yard and into the street. 

Will we lose the tree? That remains to be seen. I am told we should wait and see what happens. My yard guy, not an arborist, says I'll know by next spring. He also said if I want more immediate information, I can retain an arborist. 

I think for now I can wait. 

Pretty crazy, don't you think? 






8 comments:

Kelly said...

I "asked around" and was told (making it clear it was just a guess) that it would probably die. It might not be a quick death, but in time. That's like a huge, open sore allowing bugs, fungus, and other undesirable things access. But again.... he's just guessing.

Bob said...

Well that makes me feel better! 😂 You are probably right, and I’ve had a similar opinion given to me. Will probably get an arborist to take a look this fall.

Ed said...

If I were a betting man, I would say not to count on leaves come spring.

I am like you and loyal to a fault. But sometimes people test that loyalty more than I care for. I just had my own incident with a tire shop that will most likely mean I have to find another tire shop in my future.

Susan said...

A neighbor's pine tree was struck by lightening and it split and fell to the ground. The same lightening strike destroyed all of my neighbor's appliances. I recently had a plumber change a hot/cold water valve in my guestroom shower; he charged $1K and it leaked in a day. Poor work and high prices seem common.

Debby said...

Ugh. I have sworn off Amazon in the same sort of pique. That tree? All I can think of is the ancient Oaks at Bradgate. Hundreds of years old, the same trees that Lady Jane Grey walked beneath. Completely hollowed out by multiple lightning strike through the ages, but still green.

Jeff said...

Sorry about your oak and your HVAC person. The first person we had here was, in my opinion, a racist crook, who tried to upsell me a system for way more than its value. I finally told him to leave and called for other quotes. The only guy who actually asked to look at my system said it was fine and he'd recommend not doing anything at present. I continue to use him. I hope your oak makes it, but I wouldn't bet on it. That strike knocked out a chunk.

Becki said...

Wow, that lightening strike is something. I hope we hear a follow-up on how the tree handles the stress.

Andrew said...

I am having a similar frustration with my insurance guy. I found out when I went to print our car insurance cards for the year that our insurance had lapsed. It took a day to get everything reinstated cause it was Labor Day, so we had to Uber to work. Now I get a bill that is 55% higher. He never mentioned this. He says he will look into other options. He used to be on the ball, but this is way too much fumbling.