Shaken Off, Shaken Out, Shaken Up.

Michael came home from work about 20 minutes ago, very upset because a server crash in a data center downtown completely messed up his day. Meetings were made worthless, plans have to be changed, everything got screwed up. Like the Tasmanian Devil he came in, scrounged around for what he needed, then went to leave. Right before he left he turned around in the doorway, looked at me, smiled, and said "Shake it off, right? I just need to shake it off". I smiled and said yes, absolutely. He smiled wryly, then turned and left.

About 5 minutes later I heard a sound like a landslide of recyclables had just been dumped out. It was loud, and it sounded like it was coming from my driveway...I considered it for a minute, then went back to work, convinced it was likely my neighbors doing something with their trash. It is trash day, after all. Maybe 3 minutes later I hear Max shouting for me. It sounds like he is upset, which of course makes me jump out of my seat. "You have to see what happened, Mama! You have to come see what happened!" Ok. I ask what it is, but before I can understand what he is saying I am at the back door. Oh. My. God.

The very large, very old tree which sits on the property line between ours and our (other) neighbor's fence has been completely uprooted, and crashed down upon our very large wooden play structure, bringing the fence with it. I am in shock. Michael isn't answering his phone. So I blog.

These are the things I am freaking out about:
We can't afford to pay to fix the fence or the play structure, or cut apart the tree, and Michael has no time to do those things and I have no ability to do them either...

These are the things I am thankful for and trying to focus on in between bouts of tears and shaking:

The kids and dogs are fine. No one was out there, no one got hurt.

The only Must Do is fix the fence. The rest of it can kind of wait until we can deal with it.

It didn't fall on any power lines.

It didn't fall on the house (although, that would have been nice in a way...the house needs fixin').

It will be fine. It will all be fine. This will be my mantra today.