Happy Mother’s Day to all the special ladies that do so much each and every day. The importance of a Mother’s love and caring can never be overstated. It’s a 24 hour a day job whether the child is young or young at heart. They’re always their Mother’s little boy or girl.

A Mother’s love is a true blessing. Thank you to all who provide Motherly love when the world becomes a little imperfect and a child’s real Mom is unable to.

Thank you to all the grandmothers, aunts, sisters and anyone who fills the role of Mom when called upon due to circumstance. Please do not judge if a child’s Mom does not fit the traditional nuclear family model. Just give thanks there is someone providing love and care.

Make sure Mom gets a break on Sunday, do something special for her to say thank you and Happy Mother’s Day.

A Happy Mother’s Day wish to my Mom, Michelle, Carol and Theresa.

Warm days of summer and its unofficial beginning, Memorial Day, is just around the corner. It is the time of year you think of severe thunderstorms, high gusting winds and even an occasional tornado. Although we are fortunate this is more common in other regions of our Country.

The power of Mother Nature was on full display last week. I have never seen higher wind speeds or feared an impending tornado like during the recent storm.

As the saying goes — timing is everything. Michelle, Hunter and I had just returned home from dinner that evening and made a dash to the door to get inside. We have several large trees around our house and were already worried about what was taking place and considering retreating to the basement until the storm passed. Well, we didn’t get that far when the wind sounded like a locomotive and you could hear the trees snapping like they were exploding. I peered out the side window and saw a wave of green heading right toward the house. My quick thoughts were — there goes both vehicles, and am I safe standing here?

Within a split second it was over, the 70-mile an hour wind had brought four trees down. The good news — they missed the cars and just did minimal damage to our house, the bad news they had taken the power lines down and they now laid across the driveway and on top of the cars.

Like 15,000 other homes we were now without power and I was already thinking it might not come back on for awhile. As Michelle and I talked she made me aware of how lucky we were, back to that timing thing — if we would have gotten home seconds later we would have been under those trees.

We heated the house by fireplace and used the light of candles and flashlights that night, it was actually kind of nice, no TV. It showed the importance of having the supplies necessary in case of an emergency. The only thing we were missing was a generator and that will be my next investment.

PPL got the power back on the next afternoon and Plocinski’s cleared the tree away to reopen the driveway. A huge thank you to both.

What a great job PPL and all the electric utility workers that responded to our area did. The same can be said for emergency services the evening of the storm and all the folks with chainsaws cleaning up the wake of wood left in its path. As I drove around observing all the storm damage I saw what they were up against. Incidentally, I couldn’t believe the number of trees down in Brandon Park.

Next up, tip of the cap to the United States Postal Service. I consider them our partners in business. They deliver over 58,000 Webb Weeklys to your mailbox each and every week. That is a huge job!

This Saturday make sure you lend a helping hand and also help someone who needs it. Please make their 25th Annual Food Drive a huge success. It’s a great and easy way to get involved. Thanks again to the USPS and all they do.

Last, but definitely not least, get out and vote in the upcoming Primary Election. There may not be the seats on the line like last year, but it is still the time to have your voice heard and set the stage for November.

God Bless America.