Dorothy, we're not in Kansas--or are we?

I am sitting here in the dark..well almost dark. We have no power--thank goodness for my wireless modem and a decent laptop battery. We have had no power since about 5 or so.

We are experiencing hurricane forces winds...in Ohio...yes, Ohio. They expected winds to be about 20-40 miles an hour with gusts up to 70 mph. I can attest that some of those gusts were very powerful. All of my patio furniture is now safely on its side, having blown over a while ago. We chased the trash cans for a bit but managed to get them secure in the garage. I cannot even imagine what those crazy people who stayed behind in Texas went through. Now, I do feel sorry for them. I would never want anyone to be hurt or worse. The ones that had never been through that before definitely had no idea what they were in for. But there were people there that had been through this more than once. I cannot even imagine. God bless the people who are trying their hardest to rescue the people in need of help. I imagine it is a bit hard to not say ...dumb ass, told you so.

After an almost completely horseless weekend, I was really looking forward to riding today. I went up to the barn after Quinn's football game. The wind was already picking up. I had no idea how bad it would get! Brenda was already out on Doc, working in the round pen and riding in the fenced in area. I went out into the pasture to get Rio. The wind was gusting very heavily by then. I am very suprised I didn't get blown over. Rio looked at me like I was nuts to want to walk back to the barn facing the wind. She didn't put up too much of an arguement though and followed along. About halfway to the gate, a huge gust of wind came. I looked up and saw several shingles start to peel from the barn roof and fly through the air toward where Brenda and Doc were. Brenda quickly got them to cover. The other horses in the field finally figured out that this was a bit more than usual and started running toward the gate. Rio quickly whinnied and clearly wanted to be with them more than me at that point. I let her off the lead rope and she ran to her friends. It was interesting..the horses all lined up together in the field....not nose to nose, but right next to each other in a row. They were pretty calm considering.

I made my way outside the fence avoiding the side of the barn where the shingles were flying from. By the time I made it back to the barn, Tim (our barn owner) and Kelly (his girlfriend) had headed out to bring all the horses in. We all managed to get them in with a bit of chaos, but nothing too bad. Tim also works as a fireman/EMT. He had his radio on and you could here all sorts of calls going out. No doubt, he got called in to help tonight.

It was a scary ride home as there are alot of trees down and some low hanging power lines. It has been pretty much non-stop wind since I got home. It seems to have died down a bit now..or maybe I am used to it. I am hoping the barn stayed in one piece.