That time the Big Bad Wolf stopped by...

That time the Big Bad Wolf stopped by…

November 20, 2019 // Spokane Fixer // house

As I was leaving a worksite in Bahrain last week, it started to pour. A fantastic lightning bolt stretched from ground to sky before my eyes. The beautiful sandy landscape quickly turned to mud, and I could no longer see the waters of the Persian Gulf. To use a Dad joke, it Bah-rained on my parade for all of about 10 minutes, and by the time I arrived back at my hotel in Manama, all was well with the world again.

Moments like this tend to remind me of some of the stormier times in my life. In this case, I’m referring to literal storms. I’m not about to get all emotional on you. In Houston, my wife and I had our first home built in 2007. We were fully welcomed into our new home by Hurricane Ike in 2008. We still talk about boarding up the house as being one of the first true tests of our marriage. Every once in a while, I think we passed that test.

When we realized the storm was going to hit, I had the luxury of taking a day off from work to cut boards. Luckily, we had the foresight (wisdom?) to purchase the boards and window mounts required for such an endeavor prior to the threat. It took us the better part of a day to board up the house, and my wife and I were still friends (more or less) when we finished. We survived the storm, sleeping in the hallway in the middle of the very dark house. My wife still tells everyone how I fell asleep during the night while she remained vigilantly alert awaiting the sound of tornadoes. I don’t have a photo, but our only “damage” was our young, front tree falling over. I set it back up the next morning without filing an insurance claim. The rest of the city didn’t fare quite as well. It was a mess.

Fast forward to our Spokane fixer-upper. The year is 2015. Surely with the move from Houston to Spokane, I’d left the threat of high wind storms behind. I was so wrong. A massive wind storm with near hurricane-force winds ripped through the city, and the remnants of the city were reminiscent of our time with Ike in Houston. Houses were without roofing, fences were down, and a forest of trees all over Spokane lost their footing. Power was out in many areas, some for two weeks. Draping colorful tarps over roofing was suddenly fashionable, just as in the aftermath of Ike.

Personally, aside from the sheer mess created of the property, we lost our apricot tree and our playground. Driving through the city the next day was just like driving through Houston after Ike. I took the day off to clean up the yard, finish cutting up the tree felled by the wind, and deal with the destroyed playground (it was beyond repair). For us, it wasn’t all bad, as the tree needed to be removed to make room for a new playground. In this way, it just accelerated plans already discussed. The next summer we were able to use the space and build a nice play structure for the kids. It was well documented (for a future post).

What did I learn from this? I can’t escape the wind. I can’t run from it. I can’t hide. The Big Bad Wolf will always hunt me down and put forth his best effort to eat me. Now, I know, you may think I’m being a touch dramatic right now. I encourage you to go read my post aptly titled “That time Godzilla attacked…” and I’m confident that afterward, you will agree with my assessments. Surely, I’m a dead man walking… a leaf on the wind.

Boarding Up for Hurricane Ike (2008)