This is not a union post. Amazing!

The union post will come later, because yes, I know, I owe one. Whether anybody's still reading my rally ramblings I couldn't tell you, but the fact remains, I owe. The only protest-related tidbit I'll be sharing tonight has to do with my intended destination at around eight this evening.

I was aiming, after a drop-in at a cafe, for Walkerville on the square. If the weather hadn't turned foul, the Berrymans would've been playing, and I'm enough my father's daughter that missing a pair of Wisconsin folk legends was *not* happening, sleepy though I might've been. That was before the weather turned foul, though.

I'd been at Carroll and State for all of a minute when someone with a crackling radio turned up next to me and asked if I knew a seriously bad storm was coming. I had known it was going to rain a bit, maybe thunder a little, but I was quickly clued in that this wasn't the sort of storm just an umbrella could... excuse the pun... weather. By the time the radio-carrier and I got to the other side of the street and started passing the word to the handful of Walkerville people who didn't already know (and quite a few *did* already know), things were really getting iffy. Needless to say, the Berrymans concert was called off. I thought about making a probably literal dash down West Wash for home, but then the rain started picking up, and the radio-carrier suggested taking shelter... and his suggestion sounded like a far, far wiser idea than mine. Holy cats, did it ever start pouring in a hurry there. For the record, the tornado sirens for the city of Madison are plenty audible from Carroll at the square.

A number of us headed for the parking ramp on Dayton and rode the storm out in the basement. About four of us - a teacher, the radio-carrying network specialist, myself, and later on a... I have no idea what he does again, but he's my neighbor - spent nearly the whole time chatting away. We were fine, and as far as I know so was the rest of Walkerville; no injuries that I've heard of, no major damage downtown. But holy crud was that ever a storm! Apparently Fitchburg and Verona had it far worse than we did, never mind the great huge tree down on Main Street in Stoughton that knocked out the power, or the tornado that touched down on the west side--aieeee. Things calmed down long enough for all of us to get above ground and back to where we wanted to be; I caught a lift from the teacher we'd been chatting with, as he was going in the same direction. If you're reading this, thank you! Then there was Bosco snuggling, dinner acquiring, and drying out of one storm-drenched dress. Whew!

It's been thundering intermittently all night, though not nearly to the point it was earlier. I expect I'll be bringing the umbrella to work in a few hours. Right now though, I just hope everybody got their flood-stalled cars working again, and that the possibly tipsy Walkerville person who headed for his own car just before the storm hit was okay... and that the assumedly lightning-struck house in Exiter that caught on fire only suffered a few smouldering shingles or something. Yeesh.

So that was my unexpected evening. Now I'm off to *eyes clock* oof. Possibly make coffee or tea.