...and they call the wind 'Maria'.

These were the clouds that greeted me upon leaving work Tuesday. The cloud formations were quite interesting during the day as one of the most powerful storm fronts moved across the area. I guess there were reports of tornados or micro bursts. The office and the house lost power.

It started about 3:30 in the morning. I probably would have slept through the wind and initial rain had it not been for the fact that Pilchard does not like this kind of weather. She started yeowling, which caused Mija to go see what was up. Pilchard then took out her angst by chasing Mija back into the bedroom. The shortest distance between the south window sill and the doorway is across the bed which really woke me up. It took about 15 minutes to calm them down and we did go back to sleep. Most of the heavy rain came through between 8:15 and 10:00, when I was at the office. I would liked to have been home, but we are busy.

On Tuesday, I was supposed to go to Fort Madison, Iowa to pick up our equipment off a job there. It's been one of our longest jobs, slated to end in September 2009. But with the front coming through and projected wind gusts of up to 60 mph, I decided to stay in Wheaton. Even though my wipers are working, I didn't really want to drive in horizontal rain.

Wednesday dawned clear but the wind was still very strong. I had to go get the equipment, so off I went. I did not have any problems. If I slid in behind a semi, he acted as a wind break. It was when it was just me out on the road that I noticed the gusts.

The Mississippi River at Fort Madison was churning with the wind.

It was quite dramatic.

There are sticks and some branches up to 3 inches in diameter in the yard, but I didn't lose anything more. I was thinking I needed to remove the leaves from the deck but that was taken care of. Not all the trees had changed color so there are still trees with leaves on them.

The wind has died down and the temperatures have fallen into late fall normal. Geraniums are in the house for good now and I need to put the hose away. Time to look for window insulator kits too. The wind of Tuesday and Wednesday reminds me to get that done in November.

Beverage: China Black tea

Deb