Live from Ramsey County Library

We've had some very bad weather around here lately, including a really nasty thunderstorm that came through about 8 last night. Our neighbor's oak tree took a direct lightning strike and split in half. The strike also took out the power poles that run behind our house, knocking out power to many people in the neighborhood, including us. Here's a look at the damage:

It's not nice to fool Mother Nature....

As a result, I would fully expect that posting is going to be very light for the next few days, as it could be a while before Xcel Energy can back there and repair the damage, to say nothing of replacing a power pole in saturated ground. It could be today, it could be Tuesday, it could be a week -- no way to know. Put it this way, Xcel has plenty on its plate at the moment: here's a screen shot of the power outages in our area as of right now:

One of those dots is Mr. D's Neighborhood

I'm sure there are outrageous political developments and thrilling sporting exploits happening someplace in the world, but somehow I suspect the world will get along just fine without my opining on it until things get back to normal. Long and the short of it -- don't expect much blogging for the next few days.

I'm not complaining, either. If that lightning strike had been fifty feet to the north, I wouldn't be worried about the food in my refrigerator going bad or bailing water out of the sump basin to keep the basement from flooding -- I'd be worried about where to go because my house would have been destroyed. Nothing is promised in this life, but we're all healthy and that counts for a lot.