Massive Update: Pandemonium!

My life is not all glamorous travels and baking. No sir! I went home for what I thought would be a relaxing week at my parents house, only to be confronted by the biggest storm in 10 years. Not having checked the weather when the worst of it hit, I was in the car, on my way to Sasha's house. When I encountered a tree down across the road, I thought "oh . . . ok, I'll go a different way." But no! I re-routed, only to come upon a downed power line that was about to light a house on fire. There was already a man calling the police, so I turned around once again, figuring I'd cut my losses and go home, but lo and behold, there was a tree blocking off my entire cul-de-sac. I finally made it to Sasha's house, where I had to spend the night. It was pretty fun, because even though the power was out she has a gas stove and we could still cook. We made some food, drank some scotch with her parents, and sat in front of the fireplace. The next day I was able to get home, only to find this in my driveway:

Crazy, right? You can just hear the little branches reaching out for the house screaming "I'll get youuuuu!" Thankfully, the tree missed by about 3 feet, only managing to take a little piece of the gutter down. My dad did many heroic things to get the other car out of the garage. Later, on a grocery run, I decided to take some pictures. Now I understand why our power was out for three days:



Down by the canal, part of the path was completely obliterated. There must be about 4 feet of water here:


Thankfully, though there were hundreds of trees down, nobody in my area was hurt, and it seems like the property damage was minimal. Then, afterward, the sun came out and we were rewarded with these: