Well gee, that was an exciting hour ...

I was home for about five whole minutes when the local "tornado alarm" went off. For those that have been to our home from the South on Route 45, that's the one that's in the field next to the bar near the turn for 196th ... so it's much less than a 1/4 mile away and it's very loud. I was just changing out of my work clothes so I was down to my pants and dress shoes. I very quickly changed into jeans and a t-shirt, grabbed a sweat-shirt (which I never actually got around to putting on) and donned my boots. Then I spent the next hour alternately watching TMJ4 to find out exactly how close the tornado touched down (seriously ... and it turned out to be tornadoes in a few different spots) and going outside to listen or scan the skies and check the condition of our cellar. (Mostly dry; I squeegied the small puddle of water into the hole with the sump pump and watched it drain away.) Somewhere in there I threatened to stuff the cats into carriers if the siren went off again and hadn't quite made up my mind if we were going to the cellar or the small closet under the stairs.

Luckily it didn't have to be either one, but it sure was an exciting hour, wasn't it kids? Then bookwurm came home and I calmed down a lot. I guess a lot of it was I didn't know where she was out in this mess. (Hey, what can I say? Dogs worry!)

From a TMJ4 newscaster talking to a rep from WE Energies: "Brian, can you go over some safety guidlines ... if people are out and about and happen to see downed power lines, what do they need to do?" My first thought: "Leave the f*cking things alone, you moron!" Luckily for the viewing public, the rep had a calmer head about such things, but possibly my reply would have gotten through better.