Merry Christmas

My best wishes to everyone on this day and hopefully everyone will have a great day.

I'm kinda bittersweet about today. My mom and brother and sister are up in Tennessee and I'm stuck down here. There was no way I could get off to drive up there and get back for work tomorrow at six a.m. This is the first Christmas I have never been able to be with my Mom (and Dad while he was still alive), so I'm a little sad to be honest.

I've spent the day reading and cooked a ham and did some laundry and cleaning that I've neglected because of the extra hours I've been working. I've actually got to make a schedule for work and than a little more reading and probably to bed.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

Dancing Spiderman

This one's for Trav, a different type of Dancing with the Stars.

The Bail-Out

As regular readers of this blog know I am a big supporter of President Obama. When he was elected he promised change in the government. I think on the economic bailout he needs to go for more change than what has happened so far. We all were told that the CEOs of all these companies that were getting money from us the taxpayers would not be able to walk away with big paydays and bonuses for basically running their companies into the ground, but lately there's been a lot of news about these same CEOs ending their year ends with some big payouts. What's happened? For two looks at this go and read some news from Mother Jones and another article from Rolling Stone.

The Big Bang Theory

For my money this is probably the funniest show on TV right now. But what makes it great is that it's more than just the jokes, the characters on this show are so true. This bit was from last year's Christmas episode but it still is great.

Heroes

The dictionary defines hero as:

1.	a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.

2.	a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.

3.	the principal male character in a story, play, film, etc.

4.	Classical Mythology a. a being of godlike prowess and beneficence who often came to be honored as a divinity. b. (in the Homeric period) a warrior-chieftain of special strength, courage, or ability. c. (in later antiquity) an immortal being; demigod.

In our lifetime we come across many types of heroes. Some are heroes that put their life on the line everyday to protect us. Police officers, fire men, men and women in the military; all are heroes the are willing to risk their lives for others. For some of us we are lucky enough to have our parents be our heroes. Now when I was younger I would never have admitted such a thing, but as we get older we see things in a different light. More than anyone else I would consider my Mom and Dad my greatest heroes, helping me see what right and wrong is and shaping my life more than any other person.

Still as we grow up we find heroes in other places. Some find them in sports. Growing up I was never the kid that was that enamoured of the baseball player or the football player. My Dad and brother were both sports fanatics, watching the games and rooting on their teams, but I never had a team or a player. I just never got into it, never looked at the players and wanted to be them.

Instead I found my heroes in other spots. One of my first was in the pages of comic books. I didn't learn right or wrong from comics, but reading the four color adventures of the Marvel Comic heroes helped me to see how such concepts operated in the "real" world. The man putting the words in the character's mouths was Stan Lee. These heroes were not dark, they were not going to kill or maim another. They would give up their own life before they allowed harm to come to another. For a kid this was powerful stuff.

Two other men that helped me see things in a different light were also writers. Isaac Asimov and Harlan Ellison were two writers that were more than just writers to me. Between their stories and their words inbetween the stories I saw life in more than just black and white, but that even with shades of grey you could still do what was right and maintain your ethical compass. From these writers I formed the desire to be a writer myself. I really don't remember wanting to be anything else but a writer since I first started reading their books.

And than there is one final man that I consider a personal hero. Twenty nine years ago today he was murdered in New York City. Of course that man was John Lennon. From his music to his life I am in admiration. Was he perfect? No, of course not. None of these men were or are, they just tried to live as best as they could and they tried to live their life as they thought it should be. John was more than just his music, he tried to save the world. He was willing to be thought of as a fool if he thought it might do some good. And of course there is the music. No matter how I'm feeling if I hear a Beatle song my heart skips a little and even if I'm depressed or upset I'm going to feel somewhat better. Even today their music matters and is listened to. For the last decade, the decade of 2000-2010 the Beatles had the number one album in sales. This is thirty to forty years after they stopped recording, their music is still selling. In this decade they sold over thirty million albums.

There's a saying that you should never meet your heroes because they'll only let you down. And that might be true. Heroes are only human after all and no one is perfect. But I think we need our heroes, we all have our own, for each of us our heroes may seem strange to another, but for us they touched us or moved us or made us want to strive to be a better person and that should be enough.

John Lennon lived only forty years, I've lived longer than he did, as strange as that seems to me. But in those four decades he lived as well as he could, sometimes not always the hero, but trying to live his life as well as he could, and creating some of the greatest music ever. Can we ask for more?

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Men Of A Certain Age

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

A new show starring two of my favorite actors started tonight on TNT. The show is Men of a Certain Age starring Ray Romano, Scott Bakula and Andrea Braugher. The two that are my favorites are Bakula who was in Quantum Leap and Braugher who was in Homicide. I have to admit that I was never a fan of Romano in Everybody Loves Raymond. It's a show about men moving into middle age, not what you see on network tv very often. The first show aired tonight and was interesting enough that I'll be back for more.

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White Christmas

I caught the last half of this on AMC tonight. I like Holiday Inn better but I still enjoy this one.

Rain

Today has been one of those days you just want to stay in bed and curl up with a good book. Unfortunately I had to finish up my Christmas shopping today. I need to get it all done and than I have to get everything wrapped by this weekend so I can bring it all to my brother. My Mom won't be coming down this year, she just doesn't feel like she's up to the drive. My brother will be able to make the trip up for the holiday, but unfortunately I won't be able to. Christmas season is just not a good time for me to be taking much time off. I'm really not looking forward to this Christmas Day, it'll be the first time in my life that I don't spend the day with my parents (or now my Mom). And with my brother up there I won't have any family down here. I'm glad he is able to go though.

So even though today has been cold and wet I've been running around finishing my shopping. I really thought I was done, but everytime I see something I think would be cool I end up having to get it. I really do have to stop it though.

In honor of the weather today I'm presenting Ms. Irma Thomas, the Soul Queen of New Orleans Music and "I Think It's Going to Rain."

Black Friday Deals A Day Early

Ok, I work in retail so Black Friday means something quite different for me than it does for most of you. If I was not working retail I would lock myself in my house and not even think about leaving for the Friday after Thanksgiving. But I do understand that there are a lot of good deals out there. Well Amazon (and this isn't a plug, I'm not getting any type of kickback from this) is running special deals throughout the day, for a certain amount of time, pre-Black Friday. I've got it open and am just picking things as they come on. I have the movie based on Neil Gamian's book Coroline for $4.99, so it's got some pretty good deals. We'll see what else I buy before the day is over.

Ho Ho Ho, More Christmas Music

I haven't been keeping up to date with this as I meant, but here's a local Christmas song from Benny Grunch and the Bunch. It's a local favorite, "The 12 Yats of Christmas."

Sarah Palin and her new book

From Mark Evanier's blog he links to Rolling Stone political writer Matt Taibbi and his thoughts on Sarah Palin and her new book. It's worth clicking over and reading. Taibbi is one of the reasons I continue to read Rolling Stone.

One of My Favorite New Shows

I am loving Glee. This is one of my favorite shows on TV. This song was on the show tonight and I loved it.

Under The Dome

Image via Wikipedia

Last night I was within fifty pages of finishing the novel, but had to give it up after I would read a paragraph and not realize what I had even read I was so tired. So today I finished the book.

WOW!

This could be Stephen King's best novel yet. It's that good. I don't want to say too much, I don't want to ruin any of the surprises, let me just say again....this novel is very, very good.

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Veterans Day

I really only have one thing to say: THANK YOU!

Just because I might not always support the war does not mean I do not support the soldiers. The men and women that are willing to pick up arm are what keeps us free. Never forget that freedom is sometimes hard won.

Thank you to every man and woman who serves and has served.

Happy Anniversary to Sesame Street

Sesame Street is 40 years old today. There's not a lot I can say about the show that a lot of other people aren't saying right now, but Happy Anniversary! Besides helping more than one generation of kids learn, this show introduced me to my hero....Kermit the Frog!

Bashing Dems

I know most of my rants usually have a Republican as the target. Well, it's not because I hate Republicans, it's mostly because they do so many stupid things they make a good target. And it's definitely not because I'm a Democrat and feel like both parties do now that it's not just enough to oppose the other side, you gotta destroy the other side. I'm a registered Independent. I couldn't belong to the Democrat party, I'm a proud flag waving liberal and to Dems now days that's like the kiss of death. To see that the Dems can be just as stupid and evil as the GOP go read this article about the health care's passage in the House.

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President Obama at Fort Hood

"This generation has more than proved itself the equal of those who have come before. We need not look to the past for greatness, because it is before our very eyes," the President said.

The President spoke at Ft. Hood today. This article at Time makes a good point about a speech a President gives nowdays. It's something I've thought of before. No matter how good (or bad) such speeches are, you're going to hear people on tv, newspapers, radio, blogs and wherever else taking it apart word by word and making it fit whatever side they want. Go read the article, it presents some interesting facts.

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New Stephen King Book!

I've always been a big fan of Stephen King. Have all his books save for the most recent two and I know I'll end up getting them. Not sure why but lately I slowed down on reading his books, like I said I never got Duma Key and Just After Sunset yet. But today Under The Dome came out and I picked it up. I'm pretty excited to read it. I think Mr. King is a very good writer and most of his books I'm a big fan of. This is a big book, in size and tone of the story this book reminds me of The Stand, which can be a good thing since that was one of my favorite books by the writer.

Christmas Music

I think I've missed a week at least since I said I was going to try and post a Christmas song once a week here. Well, here's a new one. It's called "Santa Claus" and it's by the blues singer Sonny Boy Williamson. It's definitely not your typical holiday type song.

Still Needing Peace

On a day that we were trying to talk about peace a tragedy occurred at Ft. Hood. By now everyone knows the details. What can you say about such terrible events? Much smarter people than me will talk about the reasons and perhaps some of them will even make sense, but all I know is that we need peace now.

Gone But I'm Back

A few things came up and most of the last two weeks I've been out of town. But I'm back and I'll be posting again, of course tomorrow with the peace globes.

Blog For Peace

Go here and read.

Wall Street To Lose Top Talent

Some of the top Wall Street companies are complaining that if they are restricted in how much they can pay their top talent they'll lose them to other pursuits. And this is a bad thing. This so called top talent is what brought us to the situation we're in now. For more on this go read here.

Windows 7

Has anybody upgraded to Windows 7 yet? I was wondering how you liked it if you did.

I thought I had read that Microsoft was going to make Windows 7 fairly inexpensive. The prices I've seen are all over a hundred dollars. Now maybe that's inexpensive to Microsoft but it's going to make me think about upgrading first.

A Few Things That Have Been Bothering Me Lately...

Why are we still focusing on the balloon kid and his parents? You'd think with everything else going on in the world, you know things like the economy and the war and all, the media would have something a little more important to report on. If the media keeps making events like this EVENTS than parents are going to continue to do things like this.

How hard is it to get the fist in a fish fillet sandwich on the bun, not half on the bun or partly on the bun, but on the bun so when you go to eat it the sandwich isn't falling half out all over the place? This one really irks me, as usually the only time I'll get a fish fillet sandwich is when I'm running the streets and go through a drive through and keep going as I eat. Do you know how hard it is to get the sandwich back in place when you're trying to drive? Really how hard is it to get it right the first time?

Today at work I heard two customers complain about their wait and how it was Obama's fault. Don't ask me how, I had to keep going or I would have gotten into a lot of trouble. This happens a lot at work, I'll hear comments about the President that are so stupid or that make no sense and I just ignore it. At work I'm not there to argue with customers about their politics, but sometimes it's hard.

Ok, that's it for today. Just a few things I've been thinking about lately that has been bothering me.

The Difference Between Pot and Alcohol

Go here to read "Why Is It Bad to Smoke Weed but Ok To Drink Beer?" I don't do either, but I agree with the article. If someone wants to do either it should be their choice.

Two New Books

I recently ordered two books from Amazon and they came in the mail a few days ago. I didn't realize it at the time I ordered them but both comic strips shared the newspaper page around the same time and they both ended the same year.

The first book Looking For Calvin and Hobbes is as close to a biography of the strip's creator as we have and might get for awhile. The author was hoping to get an interview with the publicity shy Watterson to lend some insight into his book, but the creator never even contacted him to refuse his request. As far as I'm concerned Calvin is one of the best comic strips ever created, but after reading this book, I'm reminded of the old adage about not wanting to meet your heroes. Watterson comes off as a pretty cold person. He was passionate about his art and he believed that his comic strip was art (and I do too) but he comes across pretty much as a cold fish when it comes to interacting with other people. Still this was a fascinating book about the author's efforts to learn more about the creator.

The other book is the first in a five volume series that will reprint the entirety of Bloom County. I'm not sure where I would rank this comic strip but it was always one of my favorites and I look forward to exploring it from the first strip to the last.

We're living in a time where some of the great comic strips are being reprinted in deluxe editions. Besides Bloom County, there is the definite Calvin and Hobbes three huge volumes that reprint the entire run of the strip. And of course there is Peanuts which started with the first volume in 1959 and right now is up to the year 1973. Especially with the early volumes there are a lot of strips that no has seen in decades as Charles Schultz never wanted to reprint his early work until it came time for the complete edition. And happily there is Pogo coming, another of my favorite strips.

Peace For Everyone

Peace means more than just an absence of war. We need peace for everyone. I found this video on Mark Eavnier's blog.

Dress For Success

I'm going to sound like an old fart here, but I can't help it.

Part of what I do at my job is interview and hire new associates. This week I've interviewed three young men. Now I realize that people don't wear a suit and tie to an interview. I wouldn't expect it. I had a job for twenty something years where I had to wear a suit and tie and am thankful now that the job I have is a lot more casual. We wear a polo shirt and slacks. So I'm not looking for a potential new hire to come dressed up, but....you all knew there was a but coming right? One guy came in shorts and flip flops! Now I'm sorry, that's way too under dressed to be coming to interview for a job. Another guy when I walked up to the counter where he was waiting for me was chewing so hard on gum that he looked like a cow. Really. I have nothing against gum chewing, but keep it low key. Throughout the interview he kept smacking his mouth as he chewed his gum.

I don't understand it. I would think this is common sense. A pair of jeans and a polo or nice shirt, that's all I ask for. You'd be surprised by how some people come dressed for an interview. I just don't understand it. I'm all for casual dress, but there is a limit.

Blog For Peace

Again we remind you that on November 5 everyone needs to blog for peace. Do we think that simply writing about peace everyone will lay down their weapons and we'll have everlasting peace? It would be nice, but no one that is doing this is that naive. But the long march towards that everlasting peace has to start with one step and that's what we're hoping for. Let's take that first step together. Who knows who might read you post about peace and be moved? Peace can start with a word. Let that word be yours.

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Peace Globes Are Coming

In my slowdown from blogging lately I've neglected to mention the BlogBlast For Peace. This idea was started by Mimi and has grown into a world wide event. On Nov. 5 every blogger puts a peace globe on their blog and writes whatever moves them to write that day. I know there will be a lot of you out there that scoff at the idea and think it's just a bunch of hippie nonsense. But large movements are built from the ground up, one step at a time.

Remember the most powerful weapon might not be a sword or a gun or a bomb....it might be a word. Words have power. Use them wisely.

Ho, Ho, Christmas Is Coming

Working in retail I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas. After seeing parents fight over a toy it's hard to get in the jolly peace and goodwill to all vibe about the holiday. When you have to work more hours than you thought possible it's hard to get too overjoyed when the day finally gets here except as a day off and much needed sleep.

But I still have to admit that there is something about the holiday that I love. Some of my favorite movies; Holiday Inn, It's A Wonderful Life deal with Christmas. And I love some Christmas music. Now I don't love it when I'm working or go shopping and I hear Christmas music and it's not even Halloween yet. Used to be Christmas didn't start going up in the stores until after Thanksgiving. Somehow it's snuck up past Halloween and I've seen some stores start decorating after Labor Day.

Still we only have something like nine weeks till Santa slides down that chimney. So even after what I just said about Christmas music I'm going to start a weekly posing of some of my favorite Christmas songs now.

And the first one is a surprise to me. Bob Dylan just released a Christmas album. I can hear the surprise in all your voices, cause it was in mine. Bob Dylan and a Christmas album! I figured this for a train wreck for sure. Dylan's singing style has always been, shall we say unique, but ten years or so ago he seems to have blown his voice out. It works great for the blues and old country style songs he has been favoring on recent albums. I don't think it works that well when he tries for the Tin Pan Alley material he goes after on his newer albums. I was just having trouble wrapping my mind around this concept.

Well, I am glad to report that it actually works out quite well. I enjoyed the album. His voice puts a different spin on the songs, but they come off quite nicely. I'm posting "Must Be Santa" because it's such a fun song. It's different than most of the other songs on the album, in that Dylan isn't the focus of the singing. On this song it's the chorus. But still it's a really fun Christmas song. Before the nine weeks are up I'll probably post another Dylan Christmas song and you'll hear him better singing yuletide cheer.

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Joss Stone Coming

As anyone that sees my heading for this site will know I'm a big Joss Stone fan. She has a new album coming out next week and this is the first single off of it.

Happy Birthday Dad

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, here's a few thousand words about my Dad. Today would have been his birthday.

This is my Dad's parents, my grandparents. I was never that close to them. As a small child we lived in New Jersey where they lived, but after we moved down south we didn't see them that much and my Dad and his Father weren't that close. My Grandfather wasn't the nicest man in the world, but my memories of him are sitting in his lap while he read the funnies to my brother and me.

This is the earliest picture of my Dad that I have. I really have no idea how old he is here, but he's pretty young. Ready to take on the world.

This is probably from when we lived in New Jersey. That's me and the little tyke is my brother with my Dad.
I'm not sure where we were for this picture. I'm assuming Memphis from the age of me and my brother. That's us with my Mom and Dad. Notice how my Dad had pretty much the same hair style throughout these pictures.

A Christmas picture with my Dad and me and my brother. My Dad was not a suit wearer. I can't remember the times I've seen my Dad in a suit outside a wedding or something similar. The little Christmas figure hanging to the right of my Dad, we had that for years, I remember hanging it up till I was past my teens. It was just a plastic leaf figure with a round head, I didn't even remember it till I was looking at this picture.

I'm pretty sure this was from when we were in Florida. I want to say St. Augustine, but not completely sure. That's my brother, me and my Dad holding my sister.

My Dad at work. He was an aviation ordinance man, which meant he was responsible for arming the plane.

My Dad as a sailor. He spent over twenty years in the Navy and served proudly.

This is my Dad and Mom from his retirement. I remember this because I actually got to go. He retired not long after I graduated, so I didn't have school when it happened. It was actually quite a moving event.

This was at my Grandmother's house in Tennessee. My Mom lives close enough to this house now that she can see it from her porch. That's my Grandmother in the rocker, my Mom, my Dad and my sister. I remember this house with so much great memories, it's a shame no one in the family kept it up. Now it's falling apart.

This was right after my parents moved to Mississippi. They had just built the porch at the back of their home. That's me in the cool shades, with my Dad, brother and sister.

Again from Mississippi with my Dad, me, sister and Mom. This is one of my favorite pictures.

Again from Mississippi. My brother, Dad, his sister - my Aunt Bop, my sister and me.

One more from Mississippi. My brother with my niece in his lap, me behind them, my nephew on the ground, my Dad and my Mom with her cool hat behind him and their dog.

Blogging Slowdown

This seems to happen sometime every year. I blog like crazy for most of the year, but than I hit a patch where I almost disappear. Well, I'm at the point now. I'll be back, but for those that are still reading you'll notice I haven't been posting that much. Or visiting and commenting much. Give me a little time and I'll be back. It's kind of like blogger burnout, I just need to rest a bit and than I'll be back as good as new.

Another Look at the Health Care Problem

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Mary Travers

Rest in peace.

9.11.01

09.09.09

What is it with the Beatles and the number nine?

This is pretty cool. (Though I don't have any of the game stations this plays on.)



But this is way cooler!

New I Tunes But That's Not Why I Posted This....

Apple came out with new updates for their I Phone and I Pods, but that's not the reason I'm posting this here. If nothing just check out the start of this video. An advertisement from who? Microsoft. Right before the video starts about Apple's I Tunes. Yea, I know it's a video from a magazine, but still I thought it kind of funny.

A New Beginning

Today Vinny and Nancy were married. I wish them all the best in the world.

This world of blogging is strange. I've never met Vinny or Nancy, but I feel like they're friends. You talk back and forth over these internet connections and you feel a friendship develop. You start to care for people you've never met. So on this wonderful and important day for them I wish them the best and I leave them with this song from Joey Ramone "What A Wonderful World" in the hopes that their world is wonderful for all time.

The Commitments

I remember watching this movie a long time ago and enjoying it. I was bored tonight and flipping through channels when I came across it on tv. It was commercial tv, so it had commercials and the language was cleaned up, but I found myself watching it and enjoying it again. I wanted to post their version of "Try A Little Tenderness" but couldn't find it, so I went with "In The Midnight Hour."

What Day Is This?

All day I've felt like today is Saturday. At work it just had that Saturday type vibe and even after I've gotten home I keep thinking that it's Saturday before catching myself. Weird.

New TV Show: Glee

I know the premiere of this show came out awhile back but I just saw it and really liked it. I'm looking forward to it when it comes on this Fall. It's a fun show.

Contest at Voices to Hear

I'm having my first contest over at Voices to hear. You can win a copy of Assembly of Dust's newest album. The more I hear of this group, the more I am liking them. Their new album is full of guest stars like Bela Fleck, Richie Havens and Theresa Andersson. Go over to Voices to hear and check it out and take a chance to win.

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A Look Back At Katrina

I hope everyone can forgive me for a few posts indulging in my memories of Hurricane Katrina. A lot of people probably don't want to hear anymore whining about the storm, it was four years ago, right? But even though it was four years ago it still lives large in my memories and the memories of a lot of people. I couldn't let the day go by without talking about it. I might have went a little overboard, but the following posts are some of my thoughts now and some of the posts from the days of Katrina.

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Today with Katrina

From Nola.com and Katrina in the news four years later, go check it out here.

Some Good Moments From Katrina

That first year after Katrina there was a lot of talk if the city should have a Jazz Fest. Some felt it was too soon, that it would be sending a wrong message to the rest of the world. Thankfully those people weren't listened to and we had a Jazz Fest. We needed it. It was a Jazz Fest unlike any other. One of my favorite posts and one of my favorite shows was Springsteen at the Fest. Instead of linking to it I'm re-posting it here.

It's been almost a week since the end of last week's Jazz Fest. I'm sure most of you have heard about Springsteen's appearance at the Fest. In Springsteen lore there are tales of his legendary concerts: the appearance at Bottom Line where Jan Landau came up with the future of rock and roll quote, his first London show, and others. These are the shows that his fans talk and write about, the ones that every Springsteen fan wishes he had been present at. Now you can add another one to that list.

I've seen Springsteen a few times over the years and he always gives a good concert. He puts on a good show, he knows how to play to the crowd. He doesn't stint on his time, he puts it all out there for his fans to see. But no show by Springsteen that I've seen comes close to this show. In fact I'm trying real hard to think of any show that I've seen that can compare to this one.

I talked in a previous post about the importance of this Jazz Fest to the city of New Orleans. In this one concert Springsteen shows he understands what is important and delivers on it. I'm not a religious person and I have never gotten what such a person gets from going to church, until this show. This might be the closest I have come to finding my religion. I've always thought music was the closest I've come to following a religion and today I was in church.

Springsteen opened with a rocking version of "Mary, Don't You Weep" and continued with his versions of the songs off his newest cd "The Seeger Sessions." He added "What's A Poor Man To Do", a song originally wrote in 1929 after the crash of the banks that eventually lead to the Depression. He kept the first verse, but wrote his own second and third verses to fit the destruction and aftermath of Katrina. And he dedicated it to President Bystander.

But the most moving moment came during his own song, "City in Ruins." This song started with him alone on his guitar. As he sang the lyrics it was obvious that this song could have been written for New Orleans after Katrina. And than when the band kicked in with the chorus of "Rise UP!" Hands went in the air, waving back and forth. But many of these hands kept returning to faces, to wipe away the tears. I don't know if I've ever been moved to tears at a concert, but I found myself wiping my own eyes.

Springsteen ended with his version of "When the Saints Come Marching Home." He sang it almost as a hymn. It was one of the most beautiful versions of the song I have ever heard.

This concert went from joy to despair, from laughter to tears. Springsteen made the truth of the importance of the Jazz Fest on this day.

First Sight of Home After Katrina

This was what greeted me after Katrina. I had already been over my parents house and things were not that bad. Driving back towards my house I had to dodge around a lot of fallen trees, so I was getting kind of worried. And than I got home and saw this. It actually isn't quite as bad as it looks. The house was in good shape, no trees on it. Under all those limbs was a BBQ grill that I had forgotten to bring inside when I left. In the background behind the pile of limbs where you can see to the other homes there is supposed to be a wooden fence. The storm blew it down. You can see the gate in the front of the picture lying on the ground.