Stormy Weather

It's not often that you hear tornado sirens going off in my neighborhood, or anywhere in the city for that matter. In fact, tonight is the first time in ages that I remember them going off in Chicago. But sure enough, I'm out running errands with our daughter in my wife's car when the skies open up. Nothing like being in Office Depot when the roof starts leaking in 3 or 4 places at once, and you hear one of the employees say to another one, "I'm getting out of here".

What seemed to be just another bad storm took a turn for the worse as we returned to our block to find a nice-size portion of the roof of the loft building around the corner from us laying in the middle of the street. The roofing had bent a streetlight down on such an angle that it looked like a table lamp. A number of the neighbors were milling about, some out of curiosity, and some because their apartments were leaking like sieves.

Some of the neighbors were looking at what used to be the biggest tree on the block, which was now split in two, with half of the once-mighty tree burying somebody's car.


Yep, there's a car underneath that tree. You know how I know?


It's my car. Yes, a lovely summer night indeed. That's what I get for taking her car instead of mine.

But in the big picture, nobody in the neighborhood got hurt, and after seeing what has happened in other parts of the state time and time again, if this is the worst weather-related damage that we have to deal with, I'll gladly take it. If nothing else, it makes for a good story.