<h1> Fortunately, there were no winged monkeys in sight!</H1>

We went up to the cottage and for the first time in awhile, I slept soundly, vivid dream free. Woke up to a beautiful sunny morning and went for a 3 mile walk, incident free. The lake was calm, without a ripple and it was too early for anyone to interrupt the stillness of the day. But the weather changed a couple of hours later. Thunder, lightning, rain. I was going to go back to the city to watch a football game and began to get ready to go when my daughter said we should all go home. Being stuck in a cottage with one 4 year old precocious child and a one year old baby was not inviting, given the weather. So it was that we came upon one of nature's little goodies. On the drive home we watched the tornado pictured below fall from a cloud just 10 or so minutes into our drive. It was very eerie watching it as it descended. Some brave (or foolish) folks stopped their cars to take pictures. We did not. I suffered a feeling right out of one of my nightmares. I just wanted to get home. Exciting? Not really. But a touch scary. We made it home, undamaged. Nothing happened to us, but this thing touched down just south of our cottage. JUST SOUTH OF OUR COTTAGE!!!. Strange that we decided to leave when we did. This is the first and, I hope, the last tornado I will ever witness. The whole thing played out with the words of Daryl Van Horne (The Witches of Eastwick) in the back of my mind.

"... What's the matter? You don't think God makes mistakes? Of course He does. We all make mistakes! Of course, when we make mistakes, they call it evil! When God makes mistakes, they call it nature!"

Who said Manitoba is boring!!