100,000 and counting

Today at 8 a.m. somewhere in Johnson Creek driving along Hwy 26, with The New Pornographers playing on my stereo, the 3 (my car) hit 100,000 miles. The big milestone came just 3 years, 10 months and 23 days after buying my car. Together the 3 and I have been on quite the adventure. Hundreds to thousands of trips back and forth between Milwaukee and Fort Atkinson, hundreds of trips between Milwaukee and LaGrange/Chicago, two trips to Louisville, Ky. and all over the state of Wisconsin. My original Illinois plates (KIME K8) still reside inside the 3. I just recently moved them from under the driver's seat to tucked nicely in the pocket behind the driver's seat, comfortably next to the Jim Bean license plate dad brought me back from the Jim Bean distillery. We've seen our fair share of problems too. I remember the first scratch the 3 got. I was going to Sarah's place when she lived on Kane. It was super dark out and raining. I was parrallel parking on the east side of Farwell. There's a tiny nick on the back bumper from where I hit the car behind me. The next sent of scratches are along the trunk. These lovely specs of yellow are from the 102.1 scooter we tried to fit in my trunk when Katie was moving to Knoxville. After much shoving and some love taps, we thankfully gave up and the scooter didn't find a home with me. There's some hail damage on the hood from when I lived in Wauwatosa and had to park outside.

We've shared some pretty intense winters together too, me and the 3. Let's not forget the blizzard of 2006. I quickly learned the 3 was not built for Milwaukee winters, but we've made it through. A few more bad winters followed, but I was more prepared. A shovel and an emergency kit (never used, knock on wood) have found a permanent home in the 3's trunk. Not wanting their daughter to get stuck in the snow again, my parents gave me some tread things that also have a permanent home in the trunk. The most recent adventure in our love hate relationship came last week when I brought 3 in for her 90,000 mile check up with Mazda. Just $1,450 later I hope she appreciates all I've done for her. I thought I was showing her enough attention, but I guess I was wrong. I promise to treat you even better, 3.

With recently new tires, new windshield wipers, new rear breaks, a fixed front passenger side wheel, the 3 and me are set for at least another 50,000 miles.

Take my breath away

I've known since I was 18 and first came up to Milwaukee that it was going to be worse for my allergies than Chicago was. Every year in September I would get a sinus infection. Sophomore year my room flooded and I soon after developed a severe headache problem. After several trips to Student Health, a neurologist and an MRI, I was diagnosed with "atypical migraines". Translation, we're not sure what the hell is wrong with you. It was suggested that the flood could have caused a mold problem. I told the school and they said they had checked and found nothing. I don't believe they really checked, but whatever. Flash forward three years. After graduating I moved out to Tosa and started getting strep throat and tonsillitis like most people catch the common cold. Once again a mold situation seemed to be the problem.

Milwaukee is constantly under a air quality warning. All summer long I am one of those people who the recommend stay in doors. Today, I'm in the midst of a wicked asthma attack. Luckily I had my inhaler with me. I took too puffs and went back to working. About half an hour later nothing had changed. I went out in search of a trigger. No one around me has flowers. I'm just sitting at my desk, and it's not like typing is particularly strenuous. I took two more puffs. Back to work. Twenty minutes later, there is still no improvement. I decide I'll go step outside for a little breather in hopes the fresh air will help somehow. Boy was the air fresh, it reaked of cow manure and I didn't last very long. I bent over in hopes of that helping, but mostly I just got dizzy. Two more puffs and then I returned inside. I sat in my chair with my head between my knees looking like a crazy person. Here were are probably about an hour later and my chest is still tight, I'm coughing every few minutes, which then makes me gasp for air and I'm all shakey from taking my inhaler so much. Partay.

My asthma as gotten increasingly worse over the last four or so years. When I was first diagnosed it was strictly exercise induced. Now it is more random and I often can't place the trigger, other than poor air quality and polution.

It's actually bad for my health to be living here. Check out the No. 2 city on this list.

Cold, windy, rainy: Ireland in January

I am back safely in America after spending a week in Ireland. All everyone every says about Ireland is how it is so green. While I do agree it is a very green country, I'm not going to lie it's a lot like Wisconsin. Don't get me wrong, I appreciated the beautiful landscapes but I wasn't awe struck like people make it sound like you should be. Oh well.

By far the highlight of the trip for me was probably being part of the select group that got to do the whiskey tasting after the tour at Jameson. It was a highlight because 1. not everyone got to participate and 2. I actually really enjoyed the Jameson, which for anyone of you that know me really well you know just how shocking that is. My new favorite drink is a Jameson highball (Jameson and ginger ale). Move over gin and tonic there's a new go to drink in town.

The day we had planned to go the the Cliffs of Moher was single handedly the coldest, windiest and rainest of the week. We braved the conditions and still made the trip. Some of us braved the weather better than others and got to experience a little bit more. After the Cliffs we made a stop at this little cemetery, where I proceded to slip and fall in the mud. I then spent the rest of the day with one leg covered in mud. It was gross, but it was really pretty entertaining. Since there was nothing I could really do about it, I did my best not to complain too much about it and just go on having a good time.

If I ever were to go back, I think I'd like to spend more time in Dublin. It seemed like a fun city. Or maybe I'm just a city person and all that time in the country was just wearing on me. It's a toss up.

Traveling with friends, and in this case a friend and mere acquaintances, is interesting. I've always been very weary of vacationing with friends. This is mostly because I know myself and I know how easily irritable I am. Too much time with anyone is never good for me. So going into this trip I was definitely nervous. For the most part it turned out to be just fine. The friend part of the equation was no problem at all. The acquaintances was another story, but no friendships were ruined for me so that means for the most part it was a success. It's just so much easier when the people driving you nuts are family members because if you slip up and say something totally jerky at the end of the day they will still love you and will still have a good time with you.

Plowing: A novel concept?

No. No it is not a novel concept; however, Fort Atkinson, Wis. apparently has not fully grasped the concept just yet. This will be my fourth winter driving to Fort Atkinson, and once again as I pulled off of Hwy 26 into town this morning I was greeted by some of the most poorly plowed streets I've ever seen. Last winter, I sort of gave the town a break. The area was dumped with something like 100 inches of snow. Towns left and right were running out of salt. Poorly cared for roads were a just a side effect of a horrible winter. However, last night the area got maybe 7 inches of snow, maybe. I just don't understand what it is exactly the Department of Public Works does in that town. I understand that plowing costs money and all that garbage, but the main streets aren't even plowed well. It will baffle me for as long as I work in that town.

Update to last night: We did not get 10 inches of snow. Five is more accurate, maybe even being a bit generous. I woke up by 5:15 a.m. to shovel. Sometimes I surprise even myself!

December 1 is synonymous with snowstorm

Well, tomorrow is December 1, which means snow of course. So far there has been no accumulation in the city, but I've gotten word that there is nearly 6 inches out near work already. The last two winters the first big snow has come on December 1 and they have been big. Temps are expected to drop over night, so I'm sure I'll be waking up to a blanket of snow that I will have to shovel before I leave for work. On the news they said that areas within a mile of the lake (that's me!) are only expected to get 2 to 4 inches. Check back tomorrow and we'll see if that was true.

I salted out front tonight; hopefully that helps.

Under water

It's been awhile, and my have a lot of things happened. After freaking out that I was going to be homeless at the end of June, I finally found a place. It's the upper of a two-flat, has a nice deck, a garage and a backyard. Should be nice. After Jazz in the Park this week, I'm more than ready to be out of downtown. It's been fun but more it's been sort of irritating more than anything else. I pick up my keys in a few hours. More on this once I've actually made the move. For now I'm living among a combination of packed and empty boxes. It really gives this place a different feel. Also, when all your belongs are packed up, it's very very boring.

Pretty much the entire state of Wisconsin is under water and has been for a couple weeks now. Some of the rivers are finally starting to recede, but everything is still pretty much in horrible shape. It makes me sad every time I see it or read about it. Currently the state has added up $470 million worth of damage. Twenty-two counties have been declared national disaster areas. I can only imagine what it's like for those people in Iowa. Possibly the worst part of all of this is there are people out there posing as FEMA workers trying to scam flood victims. This saddens and disgusts me more than anything else, I think. Just when you start to get warm fuzzies seeing the way communities are all coming together to help each other out and work through this disaster a few people have to go and ruin your perception that there really is good in most people by doing something like this.

You are the salt of the earth

Salt. Can't live with it; can't live without it. During the course of a normal winter I would be cursing the salt on the streets, on the sidewalks and half way up every pair of pants I own. During the course of a normal winter, I would be thinking the city could calm down a little with the salt and maybe try getting rid of some of the snow with a plow instead of relying so heavily on salt. But this isn't a normal winter.

There was a story in the Journal-Sentinel this week about rising salt prices. Rising salt prices, can you even believe it? The story took the shape of the stories we see on a semi-daily basis in the summer months about rising gas prices. Cities and counties are running out of salt left and right. It's making it for a very treacherous city/state to walk and drive around in. I nearly wipe out on ice walking at least twice a day, without fail. The only benefit from all of it is how good I've gotten at catching my balance and walking off the near fall as if nothing had happened.

Who would ever think anyone would ever care about the rising cost of rock salt? Again, this isn't a normal winter. Rising salt prices is actually something to be concerned about this winter. Cities can barely afford to keep crews on the road to keep the roads clean, and I use the word clean extremely loosely. Garbage pickup has been canceled on more than one occasion in Milwaukee this year so that more workers can be working on taking care of the snow. Basically, a civics nightmare. People are giving city hall a lot of flack for how they are dealing with this season's snow fall. Maybe they haven't noticed that we've gotten nearly 80 inches of snow this winter compared to the norm of 33 inches and last winters mere 22 inches. There's only so much you can do with that snow.

What I find the most interesting of all of this is that earlier in the winter I read a story in the Journal-Sentinel about the top items that are unloaded off of ships at the Port of Milwaukee. What's No. 1 you ask? Why, it's rock salt! You can't plan irony like that.

Snow, snow go away...but don't come again some other day

Today in the Journal-Sentinel there was a story about the exceptionally snowy winter we've experienced this season. Having not lived under a rock for the past two and a half months, I was aware of the fact that we had gotten a lot, A LOT, of snow. However, I was really surprised when I read this. Milwaukee has been bombed with 65.7 inches of snow this winter. That's twice as much as the average of 33 inches, and last year at this time we had only gotten a measly 22 inches. Let's put this into perspective. If we hadn't been blessed with a few unseasonably warm days, the occasional sunshine and some spots of rain, the snow would be an inch above my head. And that's if it wasn't plowed at all. I can only imagine what the height of snow hills would be.

If the latest pounding of an unbearable amount of snow wasn't hard enough, temperatures are about to plummet. Tomorrow it's back to the frigid single digits we experienced a few weeks ago, and once again with wind chills falling into double digit subzero numbers. That's a lot of stress on the human body. Snow, blizzard conditions, rain, sleet, hail, tornadoes, sunshine and temps in the 50s: we've seen it all this winter.

I've never been more ready for winter to be over in my entire life. Maybe I sound like I'm being over dramatic, but you know what? I don't really care. I'm ready to replace the shovel in my trunk with a cooler. I'm ready for it to be unbearably hot in the apartment instead of unbearably cold. I am ready for summer.

Mother Nature, you're a cruel cruel woman.

We haven't been hit hard with a bad winter for awhile. Despite having a negative winter experience nice and early last winter to turn me off from the season forever, overall the winter of 2006-07 wasn't too bad. This winter, however, hit us hard. Right now I can't see out my window as a result of either blowing snow, a snowblower or a combination of the two. The entire city is more or less shut down. When it finally ends, we're expected to have upward of 16 inches...and that's not the first big snow of the season. Last week, I walked out my front door into snow that went almost up to my knee. Every time the snow comes, it comes heavy and it comes fast.

Now that is is February, I've had plenty of time to reflect on my feelings toward winter. The conclusion I have come to is this: I only need one month of winter. I like that there is snow for a little while. I like that it gets cold. I do not like a grand total of 50+ inches of snow; I do not like sub-zero temperatures (and that is without the wind chill my friends). Why do I stick around then you ask? Well I guess all of you people I call my family and friends are why I stick around. What I can't get my head around is why for the how ever many years our families have resided in this area of the country they decided to stay. Do we just like the pain that much? I for one am over it completely. Send me somewhere that gets a little hint of winter and that's it. I'm done getting stuck in the snow. I'm done with having my boogers freeze the minute I walk outside. I'm done with near accidents because the roads are slick and my tires are crap. I'm done with winter.

Thank God for the few "heat waves" we've experienced this winter that have miraculously always melted most of the snow before the next big storm hits us.

Mother Nature, you can stop this cruel joke now.

Baby it's cold outside

Current temperature in Milwaukee: -3 degrees F

Current "feels like" temperature in Milwaukee: -23 degrees F

Winds are blowing at 13 mph

Brrrr. Having lived my entire life in Chicago and Milwaukee, both cities notorious for chilly winter weather, you would think I was well adjusted and could handle it. Yet winter after winter once the real deep freeze finally sets in you would think I had lived most my life in Texas. I think back in high school sometime during all that running outside in January my big toe on my left foot got frost bite. Now every time it's even remotely cold I loose feeling in it. It's really a weird sensation.

Last night some friends and I ventured downtown to see "Sonic Vision" (though we chose to call it the Laser Light Show) at the Planetarium/IMAX. Sure, the temperature was in single digits, if not negative digits, but the cold was not going to keep us away from lasers! Before I picked my friends up I had to buy some gas. My little car struggled to start with a quarter of a tank, so I saw it in all of our best interest to fill her up. My fingers were uncovered for about one minute. That was one minute too long. As I stood outside next to my car I tried to turn my back to the wind to take some of the cold away. It really didn't work. Finally! The numbers on the pump said 9.5 gallons. We were back in business. I closed the the tank up and made my way back into the "warmth" of my car.

My fingers hurt they were so cold. Only a few more blocks and I would be at my friends' apartment. It was my lucky day. There was actually a parking spot in the lot! I hurried to the door: my arms full Dairy Queen (I can't believe they all really wanted ice cream on a night like this!) and a bowl they had left at my place a few weeks before. We ate the treats and I tried to warm up before heading back out. We left the apartment bundled up and pretty much ran to my car.

After navigating through the horrendous road construction in downtown Milwaukee, I managed to find a parking spot a block from the museum. We hurried inside, bought our tickets. For the next hour and a half we were warm and enjoyed the show. Unfortunately, there were no lasers. Then it was back to the cold. I'm pretty sure that in the hour we were inside it got colder. It was that boogers in your nose freeze sort of cold.

It's a good thing that groundhog didn't see his shadow.

The Blizzard of 2006

"The Blizzard of '79, two small children, no morning kindergarten, endless games
of Candyland and short supply of chocolate. All of these things and events
led up to me writing my first book."
~Nora Roberts

There were no small children, no games of Candlyland and not only just no short supply of chocolate, but no supply at all, during my experience in the Blizzard of '06.

Around 5:45 I finally dragged myself out of bed, surprised to see my heat was actually on high enough that it was warm outside of the covers. I tried to check how much snow had fallen, but my windows fog up in my bedroom. I walk to the living room to look out the balcony doors. My car is covered, but it doesn't look so bad. My morning continues as usual, the only difference being that i bundled up before heading out the door.

I clear off my car and I'm on my way. The roads are by no means good, but they're not too bad. I'm not surprised though. In my experience Milwaukee County doesn't understand what a plow is. I slowly make it to I-94. It's all down hill from here.

I slowly merged onto the highway, sort of getting in a lane. Traffic is moving slowly, but it doesn't seem so bad. I can definitely make it to work. The cars in front of my are slowly trudging along. Everyone seems to be merging to the left, so I follow suit. Well, I tried to follow suit, but my car didn't agree with the plan. Instead, I drifted to the right. Then I stopped. No, the car stopped. (Ed. note: It's stories like this that make me wish I was one of those people who named their car. This would be so much more entertaining then.) I had driven no more than 8 miles. It took me 1 hour.

After trying to get the car to move for a few minutes, I switch on my hazards and start to think about what I can possible do. With no real solutions come to mind, it was time to call home. What they were going to be able to do 90 miles away, I'm not sure, but it seemed like a good idea. After deciding that my best bet was to maybe try and dig out around my tires, I carefully get out of my car and face the snow. That, was not the solution. So it was back to my car. After making about more attempts I sit back in my car feeling dejected, with tears on their way any minute. Just then, a white car is next to me with the window down. "Do you need a push?" the kind stranger says. "Yes, thank you!" I eagerly reply.

After about five minutes of pushing, he gets me out! I slowly roll back along with the traffic. The exit to turn around is just a mile away. I finally get off the highway and start my voyage along the side streets. Nearly an hour later, I am almost home. Less than 50 yards from the driveway to my building, the car in front of me gets stuck. She turns it around and calls back to me that I need to just turn around because I'll just slide back. Well, I need to go forward in order to turn around, and I do it with no problem so I figure I can make it the short distance to my place. Wrong again Kim. A bus was stuck in the snow - right in front of the drive. Next plan of action: Drive to the hardware store a few blocks up and leave my car there. I get to the hardware store and it is clear I'm not making it into the lot. It's time to head back. After making a circle that took me a few miles, I make it back to my intersection. I can see the bus is still there. Looks like I'll be parking in the Sentry parking lot. Seems simple enough.

Once again, my car is stuck. Luckily there aren't many cars around so I am able to go in reverse to get myself out of the mess. I some how manage to pull into what could be considered a parking spot, and begin my walk up the big hill to my apartment. The bus is gone.

Two hours after leaving for work, I was back in my apartment. My jeans were soaked. My hair, which had been straight two hours earlier, was now curly in random chucks from getting wet in the snow. My gloves were dirty and wet. But I was home. I was warm, sort of. And most importantly, I was not in my car any more.

But now what? I was too worked up and stressed out to just go back to bed. I couldn't go anywhere. I was too restless to just sit and watch TV. Well after talking about it for a week, I put up my Christmas tree. I also cleaned the place a bit. Looks quite festive now. Around lunch time the snow had pretty much stopped so I decided I'd head over to get my car. The parking lot had been plowed, so I figured this would be a breeze. Well, the area around my car wasn't. Stuck again. I manage to rock myself out of the snow and head to the road. About 20 feet later I was turning into the drive to my building. You guessed it, stuck again. A woman walking by stops and tries pushing me. No luck. Another nice stranger stops his car and gets out to help push. Nothing. He offers to drive it up, as he's very good at maneuvering through the snow, if I'm OK with it. I say sure. He gets my car in and up to the visitor lot. We can't get it into a spot all the way, but I figure that's better than nothing. My car is at least safe in a parking lot.

Finally around 2:00 they start plowing our drive and sidewalks. I go outside once or twice to see if I'll be able to get my car into a spot. No luck. Eventually around 4, the lot I'm parked in is cleared and I can try and move my car. I manage to unwedge it a little bit, but I can't back it out enough to move it to a spot. As luck would have it another car pulls into the lot. Two guys get out and ask if I need some help. They get a shovel and we dig my car out. My original plan was to drive back to my actual parking spot, but I decided not to push my luck and settled for the spot I could easily pull into. Nearly 12 hours after starting my day and 10 inches of snow later, my car was finally safely back and I was done dealing with the snow.

I was forced to use a vacation day and missed the office Christmas party. Getting stuck in a blizzard is not exactly my idea of a vacation. I have decided one of three things is necessary: 1. I find a job that is actually in Milwaukee County; 2. I move to the West Coast where it doesn't snow; or 3. I marry someone that is really rich so I don't have to work and can choose to stay home and go no where without feeling guilty.

This whole experience could lead me to write my first book too, but I'm pretty sure it would be a much more negative story than Nora Roberts (not that I've ever actually read hers).

Sweater weather and pumpkin flavored everything

Today's entry comes to live from my balcony. Thankfully in the amount of time it took for this page to load a cloud came by and I can see the screen again.

It's a beautiful fall day. Unfortunately, because of all the wind the last couple days the tree outside my apartment is missing most of its leaves -- thus explaining the trouble viewing the screen of my laptop. It's about 45 degrees out (or at least that's what the weather channel tells me). I walked over to Walgreen's today to drop off some film and then headed to "downtown" Tosa. I finally went into the little book store. It was very quaint. It's the kind of place that has regulars, or at least that is the feel I got when I walked in. It sort of seemed like the woman at the counter was thinking, 'and who do we have here.' I didn't get anything, but found all kinds of interesting things. After that I walked over to Starbucks. We're half way through October and I still hadn't had a Pumpkin Spice Latte. I'm not sure how that happened. Needless to say, I ordered a grande Pumpkin Spice Latte and made my way back to my apartment. My love for pumpkin spice coffee is about equal to that of trisketts. I wait all year for this time of year just for the coffee. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty to love about fall, but my favorite part is pumpkin flavored everything. I often think its a flavor that should be offered year round, but then I stop and think: would it loose its appeal then? Until that dilemma is solved, I'll just have to drink up and eat up as much pumpkin flavored treats as I can.

Lately, I've been thinking about the book I want to write someday. I still have no idea what it is I would write about, but the idea remains on my mind. I have an internal problem though. The thought of the masses reading something I wrote scares me to death. Ironic, I know. I can write this with no worries because I really don't know how many of you are reading. For all I know it's just my mom and sister. I have no problem with the pieces I write for work because for the most part I don't know who, if anyone, is actually reading the pieces I write. In college when I took creative writing I would get major anxiety on the days we would workshop my stories. I felt like such a poser in that class. Here I was with 11 other students who could write, could really write. They were descriptive and creative and passionate. I came out of the class with a B or A/B I think, so I couldn't have been that bad. It's not even that I handle criticism poorly, the build up to it though is enough to kill a person.

Something about the fall just makes me want to read and write. I can't explain it, but I do really like it. Maybe it's just too hot and uncomfortable to be creative in the summer. I don't know.

Happy pumpkin season!

Thunderstorms and car alarms...These are the things that dreams are made of

While sitting at the picnic tables between the office and the cemetery and eating lunch yesterday it was clear a storm was brewing. There was an almost too calm breeze. The sun was no were to be seen, yet it was still bright out. That annoying kind of brightness where you don't take sunglasses because it is a cloudy day. I only hoped the storm would hold off until I go home since the weekend before I had what seemed like a near death experience driving north on I-94 in Racine. That day, I was sure I was driving into the end of the world, but I digress.

Five hours later I walked out of the office. No storm yet. I successfully make it home without getting stuck in a storm. It still seemed like it was coming though. The night went on and still nothing. There are storms in St. Louis, but Milwaukee is safe still. The news warns of the pending storms. I go to bed. Still nothing.

3:30 a.m. I am woken suddenly. The lightening is illuminating the entire sky. The wind is howling. The thunder sounds nothing like the angels bowling. Instead it is more like hundreds of bowling balls being dropped simultaneously all around you. The water gushes out of the gutter outside my window. The storm is here. This is no storm that you fall right back asleep during. Not only am I awake now, but I am starving. There is no way I am about to fall asleep. Then, another deafening crash of thunder. This time alarms are set off on at least three of the cars out in the parking lot. Clearly, this night was not meant for sleeping.

At some point I finally fall back asleep. However, 5 a.m. comes a lot sooner when you are woken up at 3:30. Like always, I hit the snooze button until the alarm on my cell phone goes off at 5:40. There's no dragging myself out of bed yet on this dark and rainy morning. It is still raining out, though it has let up significantly. Finally, a little after 6 a.m. I get myself up. It's going to be a long day.

Changing colors

Fall is an amazing time of year. I have never realized just how much I enjoy the season. Perhaps it is because now that I'm not in school I have time to "stop and smell the roses." Or maybe it is because the changes in the season are coinciding with the changes in my life. Either way, I'm really enjoying watching the trees change. The colors of the trees are beautiful all day, but they are the most beautiful in the morning when the sun is just coming up. This morning the sun was this amazingly warm pink color and the way it reflected off the reds and oranges of the trees was perfectly calming. Everyday, lately, on my way to work I've been thinking about how I'd love to take pictures of the scenes I drive past, but I'm not sure that I want to do all that driving on a Saturday morning that early. I know it won't be the same later in the day. It's still beautiful in the afternoon, but it is nothing like it is in the morning.

So many people have made comments in passing to me about the fall being different from now on because I wouldn't be starting school. I admit that the season has been far from anyone prior to it, but I am really quite enjoying it. I'm not crazy about waking about at 5:45 a.m., -- really who is -- but I am loving that on Saturday I can do whatever I want and not feel guilty that I wasn't doing work. This past weekend was the perfect fall weekend, and I was actually able to enjoy it. There was no homework, work, cross country or anything like that to keep me from spending the day I wanted. It was great! I could get used to this.

Rain rain go away

I think the rain makes the spiders come out. Luckily, I am pretty handy with a fly swatter and can of bug killer.

A huge storm blew through Wisconsin today around 5:30. A man in Wauwatosa died because he touched an electric line that was down, I think. There were trees and branches down all over the place. I think I might have actually driven past the area where the man died on my way home from anna's tonight. How scary.

I don't really mind the rain so much...but if the spiders could stay outside that would be great!