mojosmom | Entries tagged with weather

Sounds like an opera diva's nickname, like La Divina or La Stupenda, doesn't it? But it's Italian for "blizzard". I went to work today, anticipating that I would leave just a bit early, or whenever I saw it starting to snow, and not go in tomorrow. (I'd decided that the other day, particularly after I checked my calendar and realized that I had nothing scheduled for court.) However, at about 12:30 my boss stuck his head in my office and suggested that I head home right then. He said that the courthouse was likely going to be closed at 3:00 and would be closed tomorrow. So I threw a file in my bag and left.

It's supposed to be a doozy, the worst since the storm of '67, during which my father abandoned his car and walked home, a distance of nearly 8 miles. I am about a block from the lake, where twenty to twenty-five foot waves are predicted, which means that Lake Shore Drive will likely be closed. I must say that the lake tends to look really beautiful in this sort of weather, but I am not sure it will be worth it to go try to photograph it!

I will be warm and cozy in my apartment with books to read and cats to snuggle with, and my fridge and cupboard are sufficiently full to meet my needs. My main concern, frankly, is whether I'll be able to get my car out after the storm. I may go out a couple of times during the day, if it's feasible, to dig out so I don't have to do it all at once. But getting it out of the alley may be a whole 'nother story, as they say.

But I'm not hysterical.

When I came home from work, I changed into something cooler and more comfortable than my work clothes, and walked over to Nichols Park for a jazz concert by Darrell "Sax Preacher" Wilson:

Great concert! He does, indeed, preach, but he's not heavy-handed about it, more along an ecumenical, respect nature, and appreciate the Creator (whatever that word may mean to you) way.

It ended at about 8:00, so I needed dinner. I was going to give Chant, a local Thai restaurant, a second chance. The first time I went there I wasn't impressed, but it was more the service than the food than was unimpressive, and I figured that might be because it had recently opened. In any event, I walked in and walked right out again. The noise level was ridiculous. Instead, I went to the Calypso Café and had Cuban black bean soup and fried green tomatoes, washed down with a glass of pinot grigio. Where I made my mistake, and what caused the 'I"m wet!" subject line, was having the second glass of wine. I'd notice a couple of lightning flashes earlier, and, as I started to sip that second glass, I realized that it was absolutely pouring out! By the time I'd finished the wine and paid the check, it had eased up a little, but was still raining. But I was only a couple of blocks from home, and I'm not made of sugar! Besides, it was a welcome respite from the heat. So I walked home in the rain and here I am, unmelted, to tell you about it.

We had major thunderstorms last night and into the early morning. When it finally stopped, around 10 a.m., I went to the farmers' market, where people were just setting up. I got flowers, a chicken, red onions and blackberries. Then I headed for Ping Tom Park for the Dragon Boat Race for Literacy. I've missed it the last few years, either because I had a conflict, or just didn't register the date. I was afraid that it would be too hot to go today, but the rain cooled things down considerably. Unfortunately, it also caused the Chicago River to swell to such proportions that it was too dangerous for the boats to race, and so the event was cancelled. Nevertheless, I'm glad I went because I made an interesting discovery. I had taken two buses to the Park, but decided to take the subway back downtown to catch my bus home. I took the Red Line to Harrison and State, and discovered Harrison Haiku! There are mosaics of poems all over the station:

That was pretty neat to see!

Maybe I'll get to see the Dragon Boat Race next year.

I've had plumbers in the house all day. This is what happens when you live in a 100-year-old building with very old pipes. It's no emergency; they're just dealing with a variety of issues all at once, and, of course, finding things more complex than originally thought. But, of course, this means I'm sitting around the apartment instead of doing more exciting things, like grocery shopping. ;-)

We had major storms and wind yesterday. We lost power at the office a couple of times, just briefly, in the late afternoon. It was probably not the best day for the IT people to tell us to leave our computers on at the log-on page so they could do some stuff over the weekend! Because I did that, but I know the power went out after I left, because some of us were hanging around the parking garage watching the storm and the lights dimmed. There were actually people taking the elevator in the garage! Got home to find that some of my plants did not fare so well. I had a small marjoram plant on my kitchen window sill, and had left that window open, as I generally do. No rain got in, but the wind had blown it onto the floor, so out came the vacuum cleaner to suck up all the dirt. My basil has been growing like Jack's beanstalk, and the very tallest bit got blown over and the stem broken. So I cut it off the rest of the way and will make pesto!

Other than that, it's been a rather full week. On Monday, Teatro Vista board/ensemble members got together to get a mailing out, and drink margaritas and eat nachos. Tuesday was the last Italian class of the session, and I have decided not to take classes this summer. The various road construction projects have made getting up there after work sheer hell, particularly when there's a Cubs game going on. Wednesday I went to hear Mary Beth Raycraft talk about her book, A Parisienne in Chicago: Impressions of the World's Columbian Exposition. And Thursday after work there was a going away party for one of my colleagues who has taken a job as chief Public Defender in one of the downstate counties.

So it's been busy, and I can use the rest!

I was watching RAI-International, which is broadcast here for several hours on Sunday mornings. When I turned it on, they were showing a soccer match. Italian soccer players are adorable! That was followed by a segment about a production of Zelmira at Pesaro's Rossini Opera Festival, starring Juan Diego Flórez, one of the hottest tenors around.

I feel as though the new year actually starts tomorrow, as I head back to work for the first time in 2010, and also start up my Italian lessons again. I spent the past week doing my regular coaching at the Appellate Defender's trial advocacy program, and enjoying it as much as always.

As always during the first week in January, we got hit with a snow storm. I'm glad I was taking public transportation instead of driving! In fact, I hadn't taken the car out in nearly a week, as I didn't need it, so Friday afternoon when I got home, I bundled up and went out and cleaned several inches of snow off it. It really wasn't so bad, as it was the light, fluffy snow, and I had no trouble at all getting out of my parking space.

It also wasn't as cold as they were claiming it would be yesterday (being so close to the lake mitigates the temperatures), so I did the grocery store/post office/drugstore run. Then I came home and was productive. I took the Christmas stuff down to my basement storage locker, and actually made significant headway on cleaning out a closet. I had a couple of boxes full of paperwork that I hadn't even looked at in years, so I tossed a bunch of it, and the boxes, which had become unnecessary.

Then I made soup for dinner. I used chicken stock as a base, and added chopped leeks, mustard greens and carrots that I had sautéed in a combination of butter and olive oil until fairly soft. I puréed about a third of the vegetables and added that back (this makes the soup thicker). At the end of the cooking time, I also added some milk. I used salt, pepper and thyme for seasoning. It was very good, and hit the spot on a cold day.

I had tentative plans for today to meet a Bookcrosser who was stranded here due to weather in Europe. Her Thursday flight to London from JFK was cancelled, so they booked her out of O'Hare Friday, but that was cancelled, too, and she wasn't going to be able to get out until Monday! When she posted that in the forums, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. Having to sit in an airport hotel in a town where you don't know anyone for an entire weekend, while not as bad as being stuck at the airport itself, would really suck. So I took pity on her and volunteered my company. However, she was able to find a flight yesterday with one empty seat, grabbed it, and is now home.

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity is going to New York! It will be at Second Stage Theatre from April 27-June 20. It may go to Broadway if all goes well. My friend, Eddie Torres, will once again be directing. Casting hasn't been announced, but if they're smart they'll use the Chicago cast. I'll be in New York in early June for my college reunion, so I will definitely go see it again then.

God, I love this city. Where else can you visit eight art galleries on a moving elevated train? It's called Art on Track, the brainchild of a group called Salvo NFP, which places art in unlikely public spaces. You pay an entrance fee (unless you, like me, have a free pass), go up on the "L" platform, and wait for the "Art on Track" train. It goes around the elevated tracks in the Loop, and you can ride it as long as you want, changing cars at the different stations. Each of the eight cars has art from a different gallery or studio, and artists or gallerists are there to talk about the art/installations.

Installations and interactive art were very popular, as the venue lends itself to that sort of thing. Kids were particular fond of this bubble-wrapped car:

Other cars were simply used as display space for art, such as this one for the Flat Iron Artists Association:

Charlie Rees, Flat Iron Artists Association Car

After I'd enjoyed that, I had some time before my AAUW meeting, so I wandered over to the Art Institute to see the James Castle retrospective. I find his work oddly compelling. Profoundly deaf since birth, he never learned to sign or lip-read, though he spent several years at the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind. He was a self-taught artist who worked in isolation in the family home, and his primary materials were paper detritus (unfolded matchboxes, discarded texts) and a soot-and-saliva medium. He worked in the book format and created sculptural works, although his works are mainly drawings, often with human figures heads of objects, such as chairs. It's a great show, covering all aspects of his work, and thoughtfully curated.

I got home and went over to the shopping center, purportedly to run errands, but, in reality, to check out the used book sale. I just picked up a couple of books, because I planned to (and did) go back this morning when prices were slashed 50%. Tomorrow is $5 box day, so I am going to return. Then off to 57th Street Books to pick up my copy of I like it like that.

Winter is definitely upon us. It was quite cold this morning, though I expect the Marathon runners preferred that to the horrendously hot weather they had to cope with last year at this time. No need to stop the race early on account of the heat this year!

I have some vacation time that I have to use or lose. I will take a week off around Christmas when my sisters come to town, but I decided to take next week off as well. On Tuesday I will drive to Galena, come back Thursday to go to a benefit for Teatro Vista, and head to Springfield for a seminar on Friday. (Galena is a small town on the western border of Illinois, across the Mississippi River from Iowa, very scenic. It was the home of President Ulysses S. Grant, and has a lot of Victorian architecture. In fact, I'll be staying at a bed-and-breakfast housed in a Victorian mansion.)

I can't believe it's nearly two weeks since I've posted here! So, what's been going on?

Years ago, when I lived up in the northern 'burbs, there was a place I bought clothes, really a sample shop. She'd call when stuff came in and then you'd go and she'd find stuff that looked great on you even if you didn't think it would. She's the woman who talked me into a yellow pantsuit! And everything was very well made. When I lost 20 pounds, it was worth it to me to have things altered. I still wear suits I bought from her a dozen years ago. I stopped going by when I moved to the city, but a couple of weeks ago, she called and I did go up on a Saturday, and I now have some excellent new clothes (not all in my closet yet - she won't let anything out the door unless it fits the client perfectly, so some are being altered).

In other fashion news, I stopped by Kate Spade for an appearance by Tim Gunn. He's as charming and elegant in person as he is on television:

I went to a seminar downtown a week ago yesterday. As always, I ran into people I hadn't seen in a while, so stopped afterward for a drink. Then it appeared that Border's was having a sale on CDs, so I bought a few, and then went over to the Cultural Center where there were some shows opening. Two were "meh", but there was one, Articles of Faith, photographs of African-American storefront churches in Chicago, that I really liked.

Last weekend was fairly quiet. I went up to my friend DeeJay's for our monthly dinner, and brought a pumpkin mousse. One of the easiest desserts ever. Buy a can of pumpkin filling (the kind that already has the spices in it). For every cup of filling, whip up 1/2 cup of whipping cream. Fold in. Freeze. An hour before serving, put it in the refrigerator to soften. Serve. Watch it disappear. Accept compliments.

The entire last week was pretty quiet. But the weather turned glorious, and put me in a spring frame of mind. So this morning I took the winter comforter off the bed and the winter kimono off the wall above it, and dressed the bed in spring green:

I have also: done two loads of laundry, swept floors, polished the dining room table and sideboard. Shortly, I will take the winter comforter and some other things to the dry cleaner and go exchange a theatre ticket.

It looks like it might rain. But who cares? It's warm!

The first day of spring was marked by the last opera of the season. Operas, actually, as it was Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, which are nearly always paired. Mark Delavan was Alfio in Cav and Tonio in Pag; otherwise, the casts were completely different, but both were excellent.

I was quite taken by the publicity still for Katherine Lerner, a first-year Ryan Opera Center member who sang Lola. It has a rather Julia Margaret Cameron quality about it, don't you think?

The weather today was actually spring-like! Mid-fifties, very nice.

This morning, I took the car in for an oil change, and had them look at a tire that seemed a bit low to me. It had a nail in the sidewall! So I had to get a new tire, too.

Yes, folks, it took me nearly five, count 'em, five hours to drive home from work tonight. In about the time it would take to drive from Chicago to St. Louis, I managed 40 miles. I left the office at 3:30 and got home about 8:20. It was a thrill in those rare moments when I got into 3rd gear. Have I mentioned that I hate snow? At least, I hate it at rush hour.

Other than that, I haven't journaled about my fun Sunday. The daughter of a couple I go to opera with was in a local dance school's performance of "The Nutcracker", and Sunday was her big solo as Flower #2 (also Harlequin Doll), so I went. It was really enjoyable. The school is an excellent one (the director is the Ballet Mistress for Lyric Opera) and the dancers ranged from tiny tots through talented teenagers, with a couple of instructors as well. Of course, the fun part was listening to, and watching, the children around us. I was sitting with another friend, and we both got the giggles when, as Drosselmeyer comes out swirling his cape, the kid behind us whispers, "He's wearing a cape because he's a pirate!" And there was some consternation among the younger set when only one of the flowers was wearing a pink tutu. Kids are so cute!

Then I went to the Chicago Hand Bookbinders holiday party, which, while rather sparsely attended, was quite enjoyable. It was held at the Chicago School of Violin Making, as one of our members is the co-director there, and has been wanting us to come. She gave us the 5¢ tour, and I very much want to go back for a more in-depth tour. What she told us about the school, and violin-making generally, was fascinating! (Pics here.)

Sorry, just couldn't resist.

Yesterday was Humanities Day at the University of Chicago, coinciding, as it always does, with Family (formerly Parents') Day. Also as always, the offerings were many and varied. I attended Larry Rothfield's lecture "Nobody Thought of Culture: Behind the Looting of the Baghdad Museum", which expanded beyond the title to discuss the even worse looting of archaelogical sites. The keynote address was given by Jacqueline Goldsby, on the bookish subject of "A Salon for the Masses: Black Chicago's Book Review and Lecture Forum, 1933-53. Most interesting was the public nature of the influential Forum, at a branch of the Chicago Public Library, as contrasted to the private salons of the Harlem Renaissance. Finally, I went to hear Shulamit Ran on "Taking on the Credo: A Chanticleer Mass through a Jewish Prism". Very enlightening to hear how she tackled that one! I didn't go to the final session, as I had an opera that night and wanted to a) eat, and b) rest up.

The opera was the second in two nights, as I had had to change my ticket due to my Charleston trip. So it was a very French weekend at the opera! Friday night was Massenet's Manon, with Natalie Dessay in the title role. She was amazing, as usual. Last night was Bizet's The Pearl Fishers, with Nicole Cabell as Leila, and Nathan Gunn and Eric Cutler both looking quite hunky (and bare-chested) as Zurga and Nadir respectively.

Low culture today, though. The Oriental Institute has a Sunday afternoon film series, which is usually on erudite archaelogical themes. In honor of Hallowe'en, however, today's film was The Mummy. They showed it in the auditorium, though, not in the Egyptian galleries, which would have been even more appropriate. It's such a great film, even if it is rather over the top. I have to admit it's a bit of a giggle to see Ankh-es-en-Amon (a/k/a Helen Grosvenor) togged up as an ancient Egyptian complete with '30s spit-curl bangs!

Fall has clearly arrived. It was quite windy today, and the leaves that were blowing around were all sorts of colors. The Oriental Institute was dressed in red:

I had some milkweed on my back porch this summer. It never did attract butterflies, but looked pretty. Today, I noticed that it had gone to seed:

It's been raining basically constantly since Friday, so I have not budged from the apartment since I came home Friday night. Yesterday, I got nothing accomplished, but I did discover, when I went down to get the mail, that we have a leak. Water is dripping onto the stairs just above the second floor landing. I put out a bucket, and sent an email to everyone. The annoying part is that we just had the roof done a few years ago. On the other hand, that means the work should still be under warranty. What a pain.

Then I made some cornbread and had some hot from the oven slathered with butter. That was good!

Today, I've done laundry and my Italian homework, and am going to pay some bills. How boring.

But I'm also going to see Caroline, or Change, by Tony Kushner, over at the Court Theatre. That, I'm looking forward to.

It was nearly 9 o'clock when I woke up this morning. And dark(ish). It was also pouring rain. I resisted the temptation to turn over and go back to sleep, but I did cancel plans to go to the farmers' market! The rain seems to have stopped, at least for the moment, but it's still very wet. So not much outdoor activity today, unless it clears up. But it's not supposed to. Heavy rain is also forecast for tomorrow. There's a half marathon going through Jackson Park tomorrow morning, and I had been thinking about going over and taking some photographs. The race is going to be run "rain or shine"; however, the site also says that "[r]ace officials may cancel, delay or change the race to a non-scored event in case of extreme weather . . ." We'll see. I will say that I am not going to go out in the pouring rain to take photos, and I doubt that many will be "[e]njoy[ing] the wonderful outdoors and music & entertainment as you wait for your family and friends to cross the finish line."

Last night was very arty. I went to the Center for Book & Paper Arts for the closing reception of the 5th International Book & Paper Arts Triennial, which had scads of great work. I then went over to the Fine Arts Building for their Second Friday, a monthly event in which many of the artists who have studios there hold open houses. Pianoforte Chicago has ticketed jazz concerts on these nights. It's well worth going just to see the building, which has been a haven for artists since the late 19th-century. It has fantastic murals, and check out this doorway:

There's also an excellent used bookstore, with a bookstore cat:

In the "it's a small world" category, I was at one studio and noticed a guy who looked vaguely familiar. He came over and said, "Do you live in Hyde Park?". We discovered that not only do we live a couple of blocks apart, he works in the supermarket where I shop. Didn't recognize him when he wasn't putting out the fresh produce!

At the suggestion of a lot of folks, I downloaded Firefox. I'm not seeing much difference from Safari, but one thing is driving me nuts. The cursor is not the usual vertical line, but is a vertical line with a teeny-tiny horizontal line near the top. I am constantly thinking that it's a speck of dirt on my monitor. Very annoying.

I was going to get up and have another cup of tea, but there's a cat on my lap.

That was my drive home. Fortunately, I was able to leave work early. Also fortunately, it's Good Friday. If you have to have a snow storm, Good Friday's not a bad day for it, as so many people take the day off and traffic is, therefore, lighter than usual. As a result, the drive home was merely longer and more tedious than usual, rather than actually horrid. In addition, it is J.S. Bach's birthday, and the local classical music station is playing nothing but, so I got to listen to the St. Matthew Passion all the way home.

The storm was actually supposed to start at around 1:00 a.m., but it was only mildly coming down when I left the house at 6:30. It stopped mid-morning, but started coming down again, this time heavily, around 12:30 - 1:00. I left work about 2:30, and found that the further east I got, the more the snow turned to rain, and in the city it's all rain (at least it is now, who knows about later tonight?). At work, I thought, if it continued the way it was there, I'd blow off tonight's opera (Eugene Onegin), but as it's not nearly so bad here, I'll go. Anyway, snow + Russian opera seems appropriate.

I stopped by my local branch library on my way home from work today, as they were having an orientation session regarding the new website. I found out about it this morning via an email from the Friends of the Library. I hadn't seen any flyers for it when I was there yesterday (and I always check the literature rack) nor was there any announcement in the neighborhood newspaper. All of which may explain why I was the only person there! So I had a private hands-on tutoring session. ;-)) I griped about not being notified when my holds came in, made a couple of suggestions, touted LibraryThing, and discovered that their events calendar has a link that allows you to download info about an event to your personal calendar (iCal, in my case, but also Outlook, GoogleCalendar, etc.) which is a very nice feature.

I also stopped at Target to buy a new hair dryer. Day before yesterday, as I was drying my hair, sparks started flying! Fortunately, nothing caught fire, but, as you can imagine, that dryer was binned immediately! I really don't need that sort of excitement at 6:00 a.m.

And in weather irony, it's the first day of spring and there's a winter storm watch.

My friend Kate and I planned to meet at the Newberry Library to see their map exhibit. I got there a bit early, having had a few errands downtown that took less time that expected. But I figured I could browse the bookstore there while waiting. Wrong! The bookstore turns out to be closed on Mondays. Fortunately, I had a book in my bag (as always). When Kate arrived, we went into the gallery, only to be confronted with Library staff removing the exhibit! It had closed on Saturday. We called up to the conservation lab, figuring that at least we could drop in on our friends who work there, but no answer; they probably had their heads under a fume hood or something.

But we are nothing if not flexible, and decided to hop a bus and go to the Art Institute instead. They are having an exhibit of Indonesian textiles that is stunning. I'm always very impressed by weaving - the mathematics of the pattern-making is mind-boggling when you think about it. The descriptions were full of phrases like "gold-wrapped lacquered paper threads". And the dyeing! There was one piece that had been resist-dyed with designs of shadow puppets, each image different. At first glance, it looked like paper cuttings. Simply amazing.

Then we went and looked at furniture and decorative arts, from the simple modern work of Ray and Charles Eames, Frank Lloyd Wright, etc., to the European Decorative Arts galleries, where some of the design philosophy seemed to be "throw everything at it and hope it all sticks" (though there were some quite nice pieces there as well). We lunched at the Garden Restaurant, made a bit more affordable because we get a 10% member discount.

I don't see Kate often enough, and I'm very glad we were able to get together.

Yesterday I woke up to greary dray weather, so mostly did stuff around the house. When I did go out to the produce store in the afternoon, it was surprisingly warm; the thermometer on the back porch said 52º. Of course, it was raining. (Today, we were in single digits.)

Saturday night was a Newberry Consort concert, The Play of Robin & Marion (Li Jeu de Robin et Marion), by Adam de la Halle, and some other medieval French love songs. A bit of post-Valentine's Day music. It was such fun! It's a pastoral story, Marion a simple shepherdess, Robin and his cousins being given to japery and fart jokes. There is a villainous knight (played with great gusto and an over-the-top phony French accent by Mark Rimple) who tries to seduce Marion, without success, and the country folk picnic and play a game that is the medieval French equivalent of "Truth or Dare"! I think the musicians enjoyed themselves as much as, if not more than, the audience.

I have the day off (thanks, Abe!) so I took my car in for an oil change, only to find that it was overdue for routine maintenance. As a result, I sat around the car dealership longer than anticipated. Fortunately, I'd brought books.

By the time I left, it had begun snowing. It is still snowing. It's the light, fluffy stuff, and is kind of pretty, but I don't care. I am tired of it!! Stop already!!! We've had more snow this winter than we've had in 29 years, and it's not over yet.

I came home to find an email from my Italian instructor cancelling this evening's class. She didn't say why. Guess I don't have to finish my homework this afternoon.

I'm defrosting some meatballs for dinner. I have mushrooms and sour cream and noodles, so I think I'll have meatballs Stroganoff.

Current Music: Schumann Piano Concerto in a

is fine when someone has already shoveled the sidewalk.

I went out at about 8:30 to make the first pass at digging out the car. I think that, between the snowfall and the drifting, there was at least a foot and half of snow on it. As I dug out, our maintenance guy came to do the walk and backstairs. He'd already done the gangway between the buildings, as well as the front sidewalk and stairs.

I walked over to our corner store to get the newspaper, only to find that it wasn't open. I have a feeling that the guy who's there Sunday mornings was somewhere digging out his car.

Jamie beat me to it. I'd intended to email him to make sure he got home safe, but when I went to my mail program, there was a message from him saying that, yes, he'd gotten home slowly but safely, and that the snow wasn't as bad as you went west. So that's all good.

I'm supposed to go up to the north 'burbs this afternoon. Fortunately, we're not supposed to get any more snow, and the roads should be clear by the time I have to leave.

but the party was so delightful.

Jim & Kevin's annual holiday party was tonight. The food was awesome! Especially the fig and mascarpone torte. Yummy. Not as many people as usual, due, I'm sure, to the heavy snow we've had today. It started about mid-afternoon, and is still coming down, along with blustery winds. They're saying 9-12", and with the winds and drifting, there are piles that deep already. I always walk over to J&K's, as it's just a couple of blocks away, and the walk back was definitely harder than the walk there.

And my friend Jamie is crazy! He lives out in DuPage County, about 45 miles away, and he drove in. He probably should have stayed home, but it wasn't so bad earlier. J&K told him last night that he could stay at their place if the weather was bad. (It's not like he'd be putting them out, either; their apartment is huge! And he had already arranged for someone to take care of his dog.) But, no, he decided to drive home. We left together and I did my best to get him to stay. At first he said he'd turn around and go back to the apartment, but then he said, no, he was going home. He's bigger than me, so I couldn't knock him down and drag him back. I hope he drives very, very carefully!

Tzurriz, if the weather's as bad in the south 'burbs as it is here by the lake, I really hope the munchkin doesn't decide to come tonight!

Hoo boy! We have really gotten a pounding today. It was overcast this morning, cleared up early in the afternoon, and I was starting to think I'd get to that outdoor concert after all. Then the skies got darker, the phone on my desk beeped, and the PA announced that we all had to head for the nearest stairwell and go to the basement. Not a tornado, but severe weather. I grabbed my purse and a book, but the last turned out to be pointless as, shortly after we got downstairs, the power went out. About forty-five minutes later, we were allowed to go upstairs, get our things and leave. The power was still out.

The winds were bad. Tree limbs all over, traffic signals out. Listening to the traffic reports, I felt I didn't have it so bad, as there were no jack-knifed semis on my route, nor any reports of "roof in the road". Slow-going though. The weatherman says another line of storms is coming. At home now, the sky to the south is blue behind the clouds, but to the north it's very dark. So I have decided not to try for the concert.

Casa Italiana is having two classes in culinary Italian. I went to the first last night, and told Marco I'd come tonight "if it rained" (thereby necessitating missing the concert). However, I'm not going there, either. Not with that "roof in the road"! I'm staying home with the cats.

Tomorrow -- they're saying more of the same.