I Think I Just Ran ...

Okay, that's how you start a Monday!

Any Monday morning encouragement is welcomed. Always!

It was a different kind of Monday run this morning and one I did not expect at all. As soon as Elly and I stepped out into the street, we saw ...

It doesn't look like much in one, small picture, but this represents the crazy amount of foliage littering the streets in our neighborhood from a storm I didn't even know went through last night! And, when there are scattered twigs in the streets, there's also often this:

And, when you follow that limb to its end, you see this:

I did take a closer look here, and it seemed the limb rested on the hood of that van (whew!!). This was one of many limbs down along my way this morning!! It was difficult to comprehend when I heard nothing of this storm, so everything I saw was totally unexpected. You know that piano I've shown a couple of times? Yeah, it's still out there but is now missing the entire front panel above the keys. I would have taken a picture, but just across the street was a man dealing with his destroyed tree, and the man was very dismayed. Something about taking any pictures at that point seemed totally wrong.

A few tenths down the road, though, no one was around when Elly and I came upon those awesome, yellow lilies from last Friday. In case you're wondering, a storm that brings down tree limbs does nothing to preserve lily petals. So, the background was more sparse, but we took a pic anyway:

"Who needs lots in the background when
I'm in the foreground, mommy?"

The really strange thing was how isolated to our neighborhood this storm seemed. Once we ran out of it, there was nothing. The streets were clean of debris, the trees had their branches in tact ... it was crazy. And, I was thankful that what I saw was all I saw.
Well, not all ... during our cool-down walk, we did see these:

The Food Bank stash is now up to an even $8.50! And, look!
It's our old friend BB ... 'haven't seen one of those in a while!

So, this morning was a bit surreal as my mind never really quite embraced the run. And, that was fine, but it is strange to have gone out only to come back and hardly remember that that's what I just did! And, this storm was nothing compared to what others have recently encountered ... nothing ... but, that's what made me so thankful.

Cheers to the rest of your Monday being a good one, and we'll check in from tomorrow's Rest Day!