No power today. And I’m down an 80 year old tree

We lost one of our silver maples last night at 2:30, the top snapped off and pulling down the phone/cable/electric lines. You can see the telephone pole actually snapped and leaning in the upper right of the frame.

I heard it go, that ugly crack that sounds like the beginning of thunder, right outside my window. The neighborhood is silent now, apart from a wren and cardinal musically duking it out, and the street is blocked off so no cars today. No electricity either, so my post will be short to maintain my battery life.

Both branches, the one down and cut and the other still on the lines, missed the tree I planted two years ago to take its place in twenty years. And I was just thinking yesterday that it was going to grow up stunted until the older maple died. Guess not.