Apartment, Part I

When they say timing is everything, sometimes it pays to believe it. Every Friday morning I run errands around the area, first getting my set of five-plus newspapers and a mocha to wake up for the rest of the errands and day. I usually leave just before 9 am and get back sometime later in the morning or afternoon depending on the number of errands, traffic, and so on.

Anyway, one Friday in March 2006 I left as usual. It was a blustery day but we've had worse and longer windstorms before, and a brief spring one wasn't a worry. When I got home I knew something was wrong when I noticed a lot of people standing around the apartment building. As I got closer I saw what happened, shown in the fourth photo in the photoset above. The carport had collapsed when two Douglas Fir trees were blown over onto the carport, squashing two cars belonging to one tenant.

For just being gone about two hours, I had missed the event which would have also squashed my long prized Volkswagon Vanagon Syncro. I walked around and took the photos below. If my van had been there it would be directly underneath the two trees, and likely would have also be squashed to some degree. It's a strong van and can take a lot of weight like the trees and carport roof with little damage, but still it would have hurt.

And so for nearly a year after they cleared the trees and debris we got our roofless carport, or now a parking space, back until they could build a new one. And in February 2006, they finally got all the permits to build a new one, which is described on Apartment, Part II.

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