November tornadoes

 The sirens went off at 2 am.... Dave woke up, but I did not, which was weird.

We got up and turned on the news, as the storms raged.  No damage here!

However, this morning, the news is showing that there is a great deal of damage in areas around us.

They've been able to confirm that there were at least seven tornadoes produced by the storm system.... there may have been as many as a dozen, though, and they will continue to research the system.

My office is fifteen miles to the south east of where we live, and that area was hit hard.  Just a mile and a half away from where I work, there is widespread devastation.

Search and rescue operations are going on, but so far, no deaths have been reported, which is miraculous, given that this happened in the middle of the night

They're predicting more violent storms this afternoon, too.

This coming week, we have an appointment with an attorney to discuss Dave's retirement, and possibly setting up a trust, and finally doing our wills.  

This service is provided at no cost to us by Dave's employer.

Then, my treatment is Thursday.

We WERE scheduled to go on our Crane Spotting trip next weekend, but it has been canceled.  

The drought has caused the shallow lake at the refuge to go dry.

The lake was dry a few years ago when we went (our hosts didn't think to tell us that the lake was dry),  and the stench of dead fish was pervasive and nauseating.

Plus, with no water in the lake, the cranes don't stop there, so it's not really worth the gas to drive up there.

This year, I checked on all of that myself, contacting the refuge via face book.

OF COURSE, it rained up there all day yesterday, so the dead fish issue is probably ... better?  They're floating in the water, now, instead of rotting on the lake bed, but still.... yuck.

Also, it's not like the cranes will all get a text that tells them all to come back to the lake next weekend, HAHA.

We can't re-schedule, because all of the other weekends in November are when the refuge is closed for the deer cull. 

Maybe we can go in December... we shall see.  I'll keep an eye on the weather, and the weekly refuge posts about the number of birds.

SO... that's disappointing, because that trip, and seeing the cranes, means a lot to me.  

We will still make the best of the long weekend, though.  We took Friday off, so maybe we will go to one of the state parks that day.  

My office is closed the following Monday for Veterans' Day, and I have my usual appointments with the eye doctor and the gynecologist.  

I always try to schedule those appointments on the day our office is closed for that holiday.

That's about it for today... have a good week!