Very Close call tonight...

[swift6]

Most of the Front Range of Colorado is under a very high wind warning today and most of tomorrow. When we say high wind here, it can mean trouble for high profile vehicles. There is a stretch of road between Boulder and Golden where it is not uncommon to see large trucks (moving trucks, semi trailers, etc...) on their sides.

Anyway, a 30-35 foot limb from the tree in our front yard (this tree is over 100 feet tall and this was one of its smaller limbs) that used to help shade our driveway, snapped and came tumbling down. The base of the limb was nearly 9 inches in diameter.

I heard the snap and a couple of cracks followed by a 'thud'. I didn't quite hear the sound of metal bending, but I still looked outside expecting to see some damage. This is what I saw...

It was actually resting on the bumper...

but evidently, it had rolled over to that point after it fell.

BTW, I usually park about where that thing fell.

 

[tdskip]

Wow - you are a lucky man Shawn. Glad to see that you and the car are OK.

 

[Guest]

Perhaps this is your weekend to buy a lottery ticket.

 

[PeterK]

I think he just won the lottery, without a ticket.

 

[frankenstang57]

Them winds flipped my trash can! Whooohoo, I love living near the foothills! I remember back when I lived in Boulder following an 18 wheeler down Foothills Pkwy heading south during a wind storm. I could see light under the passenger side rear duals. I thought it would flip. During the same storm, my flying club at Jeffco had a Cesna 310 break it's chains, do a back flip over the fence and crash into the building across the street. Looks like you got lucky!

 

[kodanja]

OMG, I'M SURE YOU WERE RELIEVED AFTER YOU CHANGED YOUR SHORTS!

 

[bcliff]

When I was in high school in Boulder many years ago, I was enrolled in the Vo-Tech auto mechanics program. The school got an Olds Vista Cruiser wagon donated for us to work on. It had actually blown off of an auto transport train car between Boulder and Golden. Since then, an additional siding has been added next to that stretch of track. A string of hopper cars, filled with clay is marooned on the siding as a windbreak. The stretch of road between Boulder and Golden is known as Rocky Flats. Any rocks smaller than a baseball have blown away. The original road was actually gravel, but old timers will tell you it was actually closed to coblestones.
Fortunately I didn't have any damage from my cottonwood trees, just leaves everywhere to rake, and a night of very poor sleeping. Here is a picture of the problematic RR track.
Bruce