Update on the Shed Saga

Hello Again!

It is now two days after the storm and life has settled down a little. My photos were featured on both KUTV 2 News and KSL 5 News. My mom recorded both of them. I will have to see if I can get them on here somehow. In fact, I even got an e-mail back from Sterling Paulsen (the meteorologist) on Channel 2 between the opening sequence and the later newscast. He thanked me for the pictures and told me he would catch his breath later (he had had to run from waiting for my pictures to the filming area and was out of breath for the opening segment-lol).
The removal of the carport from our shed happened. I am SO glad they did that tonight. We are leaving tomorrow for a while and I wanted to be here when they did that. The only damage to my shed was a small scratch where it landed, and one small bent shingle corner! Phew. That is quite the relief. I was very anxious when they started the removal process. I didn't want to lose an apple tree (the one closest to the house was in the danger zone), but I would rather that than risk damage to my shed. In the end...oh wait, I guess you will have to wait for the video...
I am also uploading a few pictures on here. We had the most beautiful double rainbow the same day the shed found a friend. the sun came out right at sunset and lit up parts of buildings and made this amazing rainbow.

Below is a short sequence of photos- (same as in the video) that show the progression of the removal. Because my wife was shooting live footage of the removal, we don't have any "on the way" over photos. use your imagination (also, re-watch the video if you need too!).

Aside from all the home issues, I was up and going by 6am this morning. After only 4 hours of sleep I was a little nervous about driving for 1.5 hours each way for this meeting AND sitting all day long. I was able to see my CORE Test results from the last school year. I can't obviously say much other than I am feeling a little down. I truly hoped that my students would do better than they did. I am not sure what happened. I won't make excuses (although that is VERY tempting) and I will accept most of the responsibility (the students have a part in this as it is upon them to learn what they need to know and work to understand the concepts as well). All-in-all I had a great time and was able to visit with some good friends and colleagues. I also got to visit with my sister for a few minutes. She was there for a district training for substitute teachers (brave lady, she is!). On the way home there were a couple of scary moment (shhh! Don't tell my wife)... actually, I did fine aside from the crazy rain storm that I had to drive through. A good friend that is also a 6th grade teacher gave me a copy of the audio CD's for the Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan ( I purchased "catching fire" by Suzanne Collins last night- that is a whole other story- DO NOT BUY AUDIO BOOKS FROM iTUNES!!!!). Anyways, the Red Pyramid was a good listen. I have been wanting to read the book for quite some time, but just haven't had the chance. So that helped keep me awake and alert. I made it home safe and sound and dropped off the school car back at my administrator's home. My wife picked me up (she is so good to me) and we came home- YEA!
Since we have a family reunion this weekend, we start gathering together all the camping crap we would need. My wife has been baking up a storm and working to get everything packed. I just stay out of her way. She knows what she wants and could fit an elephant into a match box, so I don't even pretend to help pack things. I am simply exhausted so I will end this for now. I am sure that I will have plenty to share when I return from the reunion. :)
Later...

WOW! That was CRAZY!

Okay, so we just had some REALLY crazy weather! Below is what I sent to KSL 5 News to see if we could get some pictures on the news:

Greetings,

We just lived through what felt like a microburst. We had water coming through our ceiling vents, under our doors, and in our window seals. The wind was blowing from all directions at once, even straight up- we had hail, gail force winds, thunder and lightning, and at least 8 inches of rain (if it wasn't, then it sure felt like it) in about an hours time. We returned from some errands and found that our neighbors carport and tumbled across the field between us and landed on our shed. Luckily it missed our new apple tree and, as far as we can tell, did no damage to our shed. Also included are pictures of our back alley full of water and our poor garden that sustained heavy damage. Hope you can share this amazing event with all of Utah-

John Hughes

Yup, you read that right- we HAVE A CAR PORT ON OUR SHED! Check out the photos below. We were working at the school. It was sunny and nice (in fact hot and humid!) Then it clouded over and the wind picked up a little. Then it got REALLY crazy! The wind hit first and it went EVERY direction. I have never watched wind blow straight up, but it did. We had hail, rain (A LOT OF RAIN) and more wind. It was blowing so hard we didn't dare leave the school for a while. The kids were really scared so we had a little prayer before running out into the down pour. My son had left a car window down just about 3 inches and - this is now crazy the wind was- the entire interior of my trooper was soaked! We made it home safe and soaked!

Our poor yard was drowning in water. Good thing I mowed the lawn this morning. We were all running in the house and checking everything we could when my daughter ran in screaming to look at our shed. My heart sank. I didn't want to look. What we saw shocked us!

Isn't that amazing? I totally can't believe that it happened. Thankfully it didn't do any damage that we can see- it missed that new apple tree and landed perfectly on the roof. I just hope we can get it off with out much problem. I just hope the wind doesn't pick back up again as any movement of the teetering carport would be NOT GOOD!

These next two pictures are our backyard. The alley filled with water and started flooding back into our yard. It even blew so hard, it blew over our new basketball hoop. I don't think that it did any damage to it.

This is what is left of our poor squash plants. I don't dare step in to the soft dirt to check them. The tomato plant is about 18 inches shorter than it was- which can't be good either. :(

We also had water come in through our bathroom vent. That was a nice little puddle to clean up- I am just thankful that we didn't have a flooded basement like many of the residents here in town. Well, I better post this- people are waiting to see the pictures- Watch KSL 5 and see if we get featured. I hope so-

Later...