I'm quite amazed there was only one person killed today.

I'm assuming since I haven't heard from Catherine that she's still on her way home. She may not even know the roads are closed, although hopefully the airline pilot will say something. I truly believe cell phones are evil, but this is one of those times I wish she had one so I could at least leave her a message.
7:33 PM


I'm stunned by how awful it is.

Jenna is fine, her parents are fine. I can't get ahold of Stephanie. The news is showing photos of the area around her house, though, and it looks really, really bad.
4:09 PM


An immediate update:

Looks like I'm not getting through Martinsville. Extensive damage, cars overturned, flooding. And it looks even worse in Indy. Well, and I'd have to go through Southport, too, and that isn't going to happen. But Circle Centre actually looks okay.
2:56 PM


I'm a little freaked, but it seems to be over. I pretty much sweat through my shirt. Fear has a way of doing that to you.

Right after I shut down the computer at noon we got upgraded to a tornado warning. I find tornado sirens a little unnerving, tornadic thunderstorms even more so. Anyway, everything looks more or less okay outside, a few branches down is all. Well, and one side of my driveway is gone. I think I can drive along the edge of the neighbor's yard but it doesn't look like I'm going anywhere today, anyway. All the roads out of town are closed because of tornado touchdowns. The sherrif's department is estimating 10-12 houses hit in Ellettsville, and apparently there was a touch down at the high school or somewhere in that area. I'm supposed to go to practice, but 37 is closed because of storm damage, so there's no way to get to Indy from here. And apparently there's extensive storm damage at Circle Centre (a collapsed roof?), which is where I park the car across from the rink, so I'm not sure if I can even get to the rink. We'll see.

Downgraded from a warning to a watch, so everything should be fine now. I just have to wait for my nerves to calm down.
2:49 PM


Oh. And a flooded basement is the least of my worries. Turns out the plumber didn't do a very good job at backfilling when he connected us up to the city sewer last month. A rather daunting sinkhole has opened up in our driveway. I surrounded it with sawhorses (I'm going to be pissed if someone stops and steals them). If it gets any bigger, our driveway will be impassable. I don't know if I should call the plumber and make him come back and fix it, or just call Bob Rogers and pay him to do the job right. And no, I can't fill it myself because I'm not allowed to touch anything in our garage--I'm not sure I should have even picked up the sawhorses. We'll find out.

Tornado warning in effect for the rest of the day. Hopefully the sawhorses won't blow away.
12:06 PM


Okay, I feel a little better. I spent the morning with Descartes, Berkeley and friends--those crazy kids. I think I've pounded those troublesome emotions back into the dark corner from whence they came.

I also went shopping and bought Catherine a bunch of stuff I know she doesn't need but will hopefully like.

Waiting for her arrival:

A Carl Larsson calendar (proving that I pay attention to her stories about Sweden)
A box of stationery (cute, cute mice)
Two Civil War magazines (she'll like the Antietam articles)
Bookmark (happy monkey)

And because no one ran out and bought me that oh-so-special bookmark I demanded a few days ago, I picked up one for myself as well. It's a rather loopy-looking plastic tiger. Cute, but I won't be heartbroken when I lose it. I saw another one that I really liked, but I knew I would be sad when I lost it (yeah, I know that completely contradicts what I wrote a few days ago--if I ever entirely understood the way my mind worked, the world would probably come to an end).

I also picked up a collection of short prose by Sartre to keep me company the rest of the afternoon. I do feel a little guilty for taking solace in the writing of all these dead white men, but I don't have the energy to diversify my philosophy readings right now.

What I should do is send an e-mail to all my friends and ask them to list five books that I should read before I die. Except Doyle would probably send me five titles on molecular biology or something and then I'd be toast.
12:01 PM


I wish Catherine would hurry up and come home, because I could really use a hug.

I had the most bitter of days yesterday. I was completely inept at teaching in grad school, I don't know what made me think I should give it another try.

I tripped over a branch in the path while I was running yesterday evening, and scraped up my leg.

I completely burned my hand making dinner last night. But, hey, what's one more ugly, festering wound?

Lucy is completely stressing me out, she won't take her medicine and I'm having a hard time force feeding her.

It stormed all night and I didn't get any sleep. I look completely haggard.

It's pouring down rain, so I'm sure Salt Creek is flooded again. Not to mention my basement.