Last night I ended up with 6 "extras" in my bed. There were some strong winds and rain that had them all spooked. It was a pretty steady constant but then a huge, forceful wind that made the walls rumble would blow through. It didn't seem any different "to me" than other strong winds we've had but still kept me awake.
This morning, at 5:45, I let the dogs out and returned 5 minutes later to let them back in. I called. I whistled. Nothing. I immediately thought, "Aw, crap! Which one of the kids took the trash out and left the gate open??" I grabbed my coat, slipped on my shoes, and went out through the front to find the dogs. I didn't see them as I walked around to the side of the house. I became quite perplexed when I discovered the gate closed and locked up tight. As I was standing there pondering the situation, I peered over the gate and down the fence that runs between our house and the neighbors house. Part of it...a lot of it was gone. The dogs have knocked pickets off before when chatting it up with the neighbor dog and I was suddenly really confused, thinking, "Holy crap!! They knocked the whole fence down???" I ran back through the house and out through the back door, shouting, "The fence is down!" Sofi met me at the back door and Larry was soon to follow. I walked out into the darkness and Diego followed me. We both let out a low "Whoaaaa...." as we walked towards the fence and stopped at it's border. As our squinting eyes wandered past what we saw, we both gasped.... our fence was down, the neighbor's fence was down, and the dark gaping hole beyond that indicated that the next neighbor's fence was down. I looked at Diego and then at the ground below me and came to a strange realization that I had never really stood in this part or our yard. Why? THE TRAMPOLINE!! I was standing right in the center of where our huge beast of a trampoline normally stood. I said, "Where's our trampoline??" Diego looked confused as he looked around and then his eyes grew bigger than I had ever seen as he let out a mighty "OH. MY. GAWD!!!" followed many several smaller versions.
I ran back in for a flashlight and grabbed my phone to use the one on it. I strained hard to find the trampoline in the dark but just couldn't see....until I "thought" I caught a glimpse of it in the distance. The sun was quickly rising so I went in to grab my camera. I slowly made my way through each neighbor's yard, passing trampoline carnage until I could see it. As I stood in awe of what had happened in the dark night, the neighbor whose yard I was in opened her backdoor and greeted me with "Good morning, Ashlee." I turned and replied, "Hiiiiii....just gettin' my trampoline." Apparently she and her husband had seen it roll through their yard and then take flight again through the next neighbor's yard. I hadn't met that neighbor until I knocked on his door at 7 a.m. to introduce myself, "Hi, I'm Ashlee....you have my something of mine in your backyard."
Right now the biggest concern is getting the trampoline back over to us. I am pretty sure it is trashed due to the pieces I picked up along the way. I am waiting for my insurance agent to call back about the fences....
That is the trampoline, way in the background, upside down...
