timber!

This afternoon, I was enjoying a little snooze (one of a few today - I'm trying really hard to battle this cold I feel coming on) when suddenly I was awakened by a loud "Whomp!" It startled me enough that I shot up in bed. Jess happened to have been looking out the window when it happened.

We've been having some stormy weather lately - lots of rain, which pretty much sends the locals into varying rain dances as they're so happy the drought is being quelched. (We ignorant non-locals, however, continue to try to understand the difference between a Utah drought and a North Carolina drought. One place, dead. The other, green. Both in a drought. Huh. Go figure.)

This morning, the downpour of the past two days came to a stand still but left gusts of powerful wind in its wake. The 40-plus feet trees in our complex swayed quite dramatically and slightly dangerously from side to side. They kind of looked like they had their branch arms around each other, swaying back and forth.

But one snapped. Thus, the "whomp." Jess' car was parked a few stalls away from the offending tree. And now the busted up tree has become the local attraction. I'm pretty sure a good majority of the residents here have taken a "walk" or gone to "get the mail" in order to take a peep at the snap (without offending the poor people whose cars got damaged). (Luckily, we live on the third floor, just across from it, so we enjoy watching it all without even leaving the comfort of our home! :) )

And I thought Durham was a little on the less adventuresome side. Heck, there's adventure right here in my front yard.

(And actually, we were interested in the local attraction as well. This is taken from Jess' moving car, a drive by, if you will. Just around the bend, a couple more trees snapped as well [the top photo].)