Driving home yesterday Tom had to dodge a sagging electrical line just a block up the street from us, and also some downed branches in 'our' intersection.  Luckily our property appears to come through unscathed (except for that same gate panel that can be easily rehung.)  

So despite what Tom thinks about "not needing" to have our huge trees trimmed recently I'm glad we had it done; come to find out that the news last night reported "tornado winds by 31st Ave. and Union Hills", which is just a mile east of here!

I am still working at filling in the missing gap in the hedge where it took a hit years ago during a micro-burst. It'd be okay if there was a pretty garden behind it instead of the ugly gray block wall...

Kathi, who lives near 31st Ave., posted half a dozen photos on FB of downed power lines in her neighborhood, and Amy (who lives several miles from us but in the other direction) said their power was out for hours. Ellen, who lives a few miles west of Amy, also lost power, and Traci, who lives west of Ellen, also was without power. Obviously we really dodged a bullet since it was COLD yesterday!

Alex got back yesterday (he didn't expect to see snow everywhere on the mountains driving home from the airport) and reported a great time boarding in Utah with all the new snow that kept coming down over the weekend. It was nippy there, single digits at times, especially up above the tree line with no protection from the wind, but his wool undies apparently do a great job. AND he did finally buy some new mittens to replace his well-used hole-y ones.

Since Flagstaff has also gotten a lot of new snow from this storm front he's hoping to head up there this week. Lift-tickets are sold out through the rest of the month, so he's lucky he has a Season Pass that will get him in.

Haven't tried walking yet this morning (scootered into the kitchen to make coffee and play on the computer) but now that I'm awake I'll get "dressed" in my boot. (It takes a while to get all the pieces attached.)