Saturday, December 06, 2008

Near Disaster

Well, it happened.

But not the way we thought it was going to happen.

I was sitting in the Prevuze "rumpus room" Tuesday morning. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Not even Killer. Then I heard a slight rustling sound. It wasn't very loud and I thought perhaps Killer had decided to check out what was in the trash in the kitchen as he sometimes does. So I investigated and found nothing. Thinking I had imagined it, I went back to work.

Later that afternoon, I stepped out onto the Prevuze terrace for a breath of fresh air. As I gazed into the expanse of wilderness we affectionately refer to as "Mordor II," I could see a mass of branches off in the distance — a huge mass of branches, which had never been there before.

I went and got my John Black Supersleuth Spyglass® and trained it on the area. What I saw made my blood run cold. If ever I had seen a group of trees imitating a massive train wreck, this was it.

You may remember several months ago we had a crisis on the Prevuze Compound when we discovered a tree leaning into the Prevuze satellite cable looking like it was about to snap it. The tree was leaning so much we were certain it would fall and break the cable. CLICK HERE for the full story.

To make a long story short (I know... too late), Mordor II is extremely difficult to get to, so we procrastinated until some Good Samaritan braved the wilderness and managed to get enough slack in the cable to lay it at the base of the Leaning Tree of Prevuze, so that if the tree fell, it wouldn't snap the cable.

Well, the Leaning Tree of Prevuze still stands. But a monster tree fell Tuesday, taking a couple of other huge trees with it and it knocked one of them right into the Leaning Tree. The Prevuze cable took a direct hit.

There is no way to get to that area of the Prevuze Compound without a full-fledged expeditionary force, so I jumped into the Prevuze Chopper and made a quick fly-over. Here is what I discovered...

A very large tree had uprooted and fallen. This picture shows the base of the tree and a second tree it had fallen into and toppled...

Prevuze

As the huge tree fell, the top of it crossed the Prevuze river, taking several other trees with it...

Prevuze

It then fell into another large tree, snapping it like a toothpick...

Prevuze

The chain reaction continued and that tree fell into the "Leaning Tree." It only gave it a glancing blow, but caused it to lean even more...

Prevuze

And it all came crashing down on the Prevuze cable...

Prevuze

Had the Good Samaritan not helped us out earlier this year, we would have been in deep doo-doo. But I had no way of knowing if the cable was damaged. Even if I could get down to that area, that section of cable was buried under at least a couple tons of wood debris.

Since we had the new satellite equipment installed, I have not dared to move the dish. I simply don't want to take the chance that I'll lose the signal, so I just leave it alone. Because of this I couldn't watch anything on cable to verify if the signal was still coming in.

So when I got up to watch the feed on Wednesday morning, I had no idea at all if we would get the show. Fortunately, everything is still coming in OK. I'm sure had that cable been up where it was in February, we'd be on another hiatus until Norris the Satellite Guy could come in and install a new one. I know Norris would have been happy about that because I heard through the grapevine his new BMW has 2,500 miles on it now and he thinks it's time to replace it.

I would continue to shower thanks on the Good Samaritan who helped us last spring, but when I think about it, this just means I have to keep watching DOOL. I can't be too thankful for that.

So now we have a big mess to clean up in a nearly inaccessible part of the Prevuze Compound. Anybody want some free firewood? It's there for the taking.

Prevuze

In the meantime, I hope you all have a great weekend. As for me, I'm going to start studying for my Lumberjack merit badge.

10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Prevuze this is how it looks in my neck of the woods everytime we have a hurricane,or a good size tropical storm blow in from the gulf. Just get that chain saw going. Get your pick up truck, oak fire wood goes for eighty-five dollars a level tuck load. Blessing in discize(sp)(its early). Extra Christmas money. love you in Alabama. Roll Tide. Hope Fla. loses. c

4:49 AM  
Blogger Prevuze said...

this is how it looks in my neck of the woods everytime we have a hurricane,or a good size tropical storm blow in from the gulf.

Y'know, that's the thing that gets me. When tree fell that started this chain reaction, there was no wind to speak of. I'm sure the ground down there was wet, but I wouldn't say it was saturated or anything like this. It just fell. I'ts like the tree just up and decided it was time to go down and down it went.

Kind of like Chloe and Nicole in an elevator.

5:19 AM  
Blogger Quiet one said...

That was a close call! Thank goodness you took precautions otherwise it would be a loonngg collldd winter without Prevuze Snark!!!
Thanks for all you do!

6:21 AM  
Blogger Applecheeks said...

Oh my gosh!! And all of we Prevuzites out in Prevuze-land reading our daily snark in ignorance of how close we came to losing our raison d'etre.

Thank goodness the Prevuze team is able to continue on in spite of the constant threats to it.

Re: "the tree just decided to go"

Are you sure there wasn't some Dimera sabotage involved?? Just asking...

6:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Prevuze, Bamafan here. I have heard that from land managment a local ag center. That for a tree to go like that can sometimes the tree of root system can be diseased.It can happen to the tree from being in a marshy area,even though it isn't wet now if it has been in the past for a long period that can be the underlying cause. Although when trying to claim some things on insurance around here (like when it hits you house,car, neighbors stuff) they try to say that, instead of saying it was a freakin' hundred mile an hour wind. Feel relived. Thats all my knowledge on trees and wind. Now lets all watch the game and pull for the TIDE!!!!c

8:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

LOL at the last photo of Bo investigating the fallen tree.

8:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank goodness the cable still works! Yes, I know that means you have to watch DOOL, but we love our Prevuze & need it especially over a long, cold winter.....

Not that I'm cold - it was 76 here yesterday - but it would seem long and cold without prevuze.

In other news, I don't really care about Alabama winning, but I do want Florida to lose. I'm still carrying a 41-14 grudge there.

9:20 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maybe Shawn was driving by the Prevuze compound and went off the road for no particular reason and hit the tree. A hit and run!

Thank God Prevuze is still up and running. That would be more disastrous than the upcoming Chiefs game.

Does this mean you can't watch anything on your tv other than DOOL? If that's the case, will you be able to maintain your sanity??

I hope so. Otherwise with no Prevuze the rest of us will lose ours.

God Bless the good samaritan and try to have a nice weekend all.

PS: I also loved the Bo pic. HAHAHA

11:42 AM  
Blogger Prevuze said...

Does this mean you can't watch anything on your tv other than DOOL?

The only thing we watch on the new satellite equipment is DOOL. Of course we live so far out in the boondocks we don't get much other TV, and that all disappears next February. I have purchased digital converters but haven't hooked them up yet. I don't really know if we'll be able to pick up any DTV or not since the closest big city to us is Gnawbone. We can barely pick up that station (KNAW-TV) and all it shows are cattle auctions, which I have to admit are a lot more interesting than DOOL.

12:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Such tough choices Prevuze. Cattle auction or Nicole's rubber belly bumper....I see your point.

So did the tree make a sound? I guess since no one was there you don't know. Maybe that is why Bo looks so stumped in his photo.

3:46 AM  

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