vultures

I don't know about you all on the east coast but we had a severe storm here last night. We had just gotten back from eating out at a neighborhood pub, ugh I felt very bloated afterward, and heaved my onion petal belly over the tub to get Oona clean when I noticed the heavy sheets of rain outside our bathroom window. Trees were bowing pretty badly and pieces of our neighbor's tarpapered roof blew onto our roof. I shouted to toby that it looked like hurricaine weather from the second floor and had he looked out the back windows? A moment later I heard him telling me and Oona to get downstairs right away. I know it's bad if Toby's showing concern about the weather. So I toweled Oona off and we came downstairs, just in time to see the umbrella for our backyard table blow past the kitchen window and proceed tumbling down the street. The storm passed quickly and when it was over half of a pine tree was on top of our neighbors minivan. Everyone came out and was gawking at their car. Our poor neighbors! They were at the hospital having their 3rd child at the time. Apparently, they had been in the minivan ready to drive away when the husband's sister said 'maybe you should leave the minivan in case we need it.' So they took their civic across the street, which wouldn't have been hit by the tree, and left the minivan which got smacked down by the pine. Actually it looks like the minivan weathered (ha ha!) the storm pretty well, it looks like it only got some superficial scratches on the roof. But I guess at the time with a downed tree on it it looked pretty newsworthy because a local newscaster came out to cover the story. And, of course, the neighborhood gossip and a family that garners a lot of head shaking and eye rolling, their poor children are doomed, are busy vying for a chance to talk to the news. But I think, in a rare display of restraint, even the newscaster realized this wasn't really worthy of the 'more news less fluff' plug that the station hypocritically says its news is all about. Most people that talk on the news here in Pittsburgh are usually missing a tooth, or five, and have pittsburgh accents so thick at times it would be best to subtitle what they're saying. Gotta love the vultures looking for their fifteen seconds on the local news. Still waiting to hear how the baby is and if they named her yet, as of a week ago they were telling me they still didn't have a name, this might have been an elaborate ruse to keep potential criticism on a name choice at bay.