The Storm

I've lived in my house a long time. Yesterday afternoon, my city went through one of the worst thunderstorms I've ever seen. I've been through hurricanes. I've been through tropical storms. But this was a thunderstorm and it took down limbs and trees all over the neighborhood. Some of those limbs landed on cars and trucks parked on the street.  

The rain was so intense, I couldn't see the houses on the other side of my street. Rain and hail rattled the windows like rocks thrown at them.  I was expecting the hail to break one or two of the windows, but they held up.  The electricity went off, of course. It stayed off for hours and came back on as darkness fell. This morning, Nuria and I walked around the neighborhood. It's a mess. I took photos, of course.

The first thing Nuria found in our yard was a half-dead little bird. She brought it into the house to show me. It was alive, barely, when she picked it up, but it died in her hand. It was probably scared to death.

There's a sidewalk—somewhere under there.

And that was a walk around the park in my little city.