Tornado aftermath

The storm has passed, but not without leaving its mark.

When I sent that last picture, the three of us were huddled in the basement while Trish ran around and cracked the upstairs windows. Thanks to weather.com and my wireless network, we were able to keep a close eye on the ETA and new warnings. We had enough time to grab a snack and some drinks, set up chairs, and get settled before the storm started blowing hard. I tried to call a few friends in town until I started getting "all circuits are busy" errors.

We're not sure if there was actually a tornado that touched down, but there was plenty of damage. Trish was standing at the basement window when one of the trees in our neighbor's yard bent over from the wind.

The strong winds were accompanied by hail the size of quarters, but no direct damage to our house.

Well, that's not completely accurate. We were so careful to crack the windows, but we all forgot the garage door was open. The 2nd bench from the van was sitting near the door and got positively soaked. The winds were so strong, we had hail all the way back at the steps into the house.

Our gusher in the yard also flowed, as it usually does. This comes from a drain about 30 feet away, between our sidewalk and the street. The city thinks this is an adequate drainage solution, apparently.

We could hear sirens going off all over town for the next half hour, so there must have been quite a few people affected. Trish went out to get food and saw lots of trees down and lots of people with their power off.

Oh, and today was Ethan's first day of first grade. And I went to the doctor, had my blisters lanced again, and went on partial short-term disability.