The Middle of the Dark

Sunday an F4 tornado destroyed most of Parkersburg, a small town about 10 miles north of Waterloo. It killed seven people, destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses, and made a war zone out of several towns. The same tornado persisted for nearly an hour, blazing a path across several counties into Waterloo along Dunkerton road, where it destroyed several homes a previous tornado did in 2000. My house is roughly 3 miles from the path the twister took through the city, and we didn't get a single drop of rain. There was never any thunder, only the sound of an avalanche, sustained, for nearly fifteen minutes; when I was a kid, my mom said tornadoes sounded like trains, and living less than a mile from the train yards, I can finally say, yes they do. They sound like trains from hell. Several people at work were affected by the tornado as well. A lot of people say, that's life in Iowa. One minute, it's blue skies and sunshine, the next it's snow. Rain. Tornadoes. A...

Right out in front of the library in broad daylight, ripping it out of its lock and chain and no doubt damaging it - a brand new bike I worked my ass off for - I hope there is a big giant city bus in your future.

Thank God it's Friday because: There is a new issue of Buffy: Season 8 (I got the last one! Jesus!) There is a new episode of Battlestar. There is a new Star Wars movie coming. This one is animated and now Anakin looks like he escaped from the set of the Thunderbirds . There are only 8 more chapters to go in my revised draft of the novel. There is no cure for dibilitating headaches or unrequited romances except the new Radiohead record is pretty fucking sweet.