We've been experiencing a dry, dry summer with several days over a hundred degrees. So when the weather report mentions the possibility of afternoon thunderstorms, there's a collective "bring it on!". Well, on Monday we got our wish. Starting about 4:00, we could see dark clouds with bolts of lightning approaching from the northwest. By 5:00 it had arrived with cool welcomed rain. For about 20 minutes, the rain came down in only a modest fashion. I remember thinking "if this is what it's going to do, it better do it for the next 10 hours, or no lasting good will come of it".

Then the wind started whipping up and the rain began to come down hard. I looked out the front window and what I saw reminded me of film reports from hurricanes. Sheets of rain traveling horizontally with the trees thrusting violently back and forth. I went to the back window and looked out at the deck. My big, fancy barbeque grill had moved a good 8 feet. The brand new lattice work we just had installed was now yard decoration.

Then it ended. We got a good soaking and a big mess. But, all in all, not a bad trade off. Then yesterday I get a call from my wife. We lost another tree. We hadn't noticed it before, but one of our good mature oak trees had become uprooted and lay on its side. I say another because this seems to be a yearly event. We have lived in our house for 9 years and I think that's close to the number of oak trees we "used" to have. Everyone always tells us that we have such a great view and that they wished they had one as nice. But in order to have that view, you need to be up on a hill with an unrestricted view. This makes you the wind break. It's not just trees. We once lost a third of our shingles and had our 6' privacy fence flattened like a pancake.

So, the next time you say or hear someone say "I wish I had a view like that." just remember, it comes at a price.