Elemental Force: Day One

Two mornings ago at 4:00, a large tulip poplar fell on my Airstream right over the bed where I was sleeping. This tree had been leaning and looking like it wanted to come down, so I had someone scheduled to come take it down on Tuesday (yesterday), which ended up being a day too late. With a rotten base and its rotten roots being water logged with so much recent rain (it was standing in the bank of a newly formed branch of the creek), it just couldn't stand up any more. Three things saved my life: a slow fall rather than a quick snap, some hemlock branches that sort of caught the top, and a big ass ugly ass disfunctional AC unit on top of the camper that caught the blow. I woke up when the tree hit and got out of there immediately, chanting my frantic mantra "I'm Ok, I'm Ok, I'm Ok." Then I got on the ground and wept in the cold dark, thankful for my life and freaked plum out. I went down to S and T's because I needed to go somewhere and I was in hysterics. I didn't want to wake them up, so I went into "the hut" (S's studio where I lived for a year) and freaked out for a while. Then I had the idea that I needed to go back and unplug the camper so there wouldn't be a fire or something- water was dripping in the caved in ceiling as I left it. I went outside and started my truck up to drive back up to my place, and apparently the starting engine woke S and T up and they thought someone was stealing one of their cars. S ran out to get the "robber." I saw her and got out. I was too freaked out to say anything for a minute, and it was dark and she didn't have her glasses so she didn't know it was me. She hollered out "Hello- Who is it!" Luckily she didn't have one of T's guns with her. I finally said "Hey" and she was like "Dana??? What are you doing here?" I told her what had happened and T came outside. They told me to get inside where it was warm so I did (after I unplugged the camper). We all sat around being quiet other than me kind of freaking out, and waited for the sun to come up.
At daybreak,after I dosed off for a few minutes and then woke up to a delicious omlet served to be by S, I went up to the camper to see it in daylight. I called Brian Newsome of Preserving Our Trees, and he came right away. S came up and we went ahead and had a toast of gardenia mead and honeysuckle truffles to calm the spirits and honor the forces of nature. RM came down and we waited for Brian. I was pretty shaken up from the close call on my life and the fact that I thought the camper was ruined.
Well Brian came down and cut the tree off that camper with such grace and efficiency RM and I were just standing there in awe. (It is awesome to watch someone do what they do well.) Fred, another neighbor, came down with his tractor to help lift the heaviest part of the tree off so Brian could cut it off without further damage to the Airstream. Once the tree was off, Brian could see from the top that the shell of the camper had someone avoided being smushed. Only the huge AC unit had bee smashed down into the camper and caused the ceiling panels to cave in. He thought it could be fixed and he wouldn't accept a penny from me. Oh, and the tree was covered with poison ivy that Brian ripped off and carried away by the armload...
MH and my Mom and RG came down from Hot Springs and brought food and moral support. At one point my mom said, " Dana, where's your whiskey because I think you should be drinking it right now." That was a good idea.
In the evening the neighbors convened and we marveled at the elemental forces and "T" and "Bubba" (his internet stage name) formulated a plan to take off of work and help fix the camper.