Today is lovely - cool, mostly sunny and just a gentle breeze - Mother Nature's apology for yesterday.

We were in St. Johnsbury at Mary Encarnacion's memorial service.  The guests were chatting over refreshments on the porch at Sayles Funeral Home on Summer Street when the sky darkened and the wind began to pick up.  I found Fred in the group and we said quick good-byes and headed for our car on the far side of the parking lot next to the old Summer Street School building.  We had only reached the sidewalk when the rain and wind hit.  The huge trees along Summer Street were bending dangerously and I had trouble keeping my balance against the wind.  We made it to our car and headed out.  By then it was raining harder and the wind was fierce.  Once out of town on Route 2, we passed a couple on a motorcycle and noticed another motorcycle parked beside a car further up the road - the rider no doubt had been offered refuge in the car.  There were several cars parked at the side of the road, waiting out the storm, but leaves and twigs were flying and we decided to proceed at a slow rate, hoping to run out of the worst of the storm since it seemed to be coming at us from a more or less westerly direction. 

By the time we reached Danville, the rain and wind had let up, but we could see evidence of damage all along the way. We reached West Shore Road knowing full well we would likely find some trees down.  On the hill by Gardner's, we met Bill and Diane Rossi who told us they had to turn back at Sandy Beach Road because of a tree across West Shore Road.  They were headed for Cabot.  

We found what we thought was a big spruce tree across the road, as they had said, so we called Jamie (middle son, who lives just up the road from us) to have him call Cabot road commissioner, Ted Domey, who lives a little further up the road.  Marie told us Jamie was already heading down with a chainsaw.  He'd tried to get to camp to see if there was any damage, but couldn't get through, so went back home for his saw. 

Jamie arrived, then another man, and then Ted came, and others stopped to help.  I decided to let the pros figure it out, and took pictures from under my umbrella.  It was still raining and there were a few rumbles of thunder, but the storm had mostly passed.  The big spruce tree turned out to be three spruces of varying sizes, all of which meant lots of sawing and hauling.  Jamie pulled big sections up the road with "The Peach," his old Jeep he uses to plow with in the winter, and within about 20 minutes, the road was clear, as Ted said - "We got one-way traffic going, and after I find out what the other roads in town are like, I'll be back and clear it more."  I bet he had plenty of work for the rest of the afternoon.  People who came by as we were waiting had tried various routes to get where they wanted to go, but all were blocked.

This morning, Jamie told me St. Johnsbury is mostly without electricity, but he was heading to his office at KATV in case the power got back because they were supposed to film St. Johnsbury Academy's graduation.  I haven't heard more.  I know last night the east side of Joe's Pond was without power, and apparently most of Danville.  Really a vicious storm.  The humidity is gone, but it's unfortunate it took such violence to make it happen.