This Past Weekend: Part 3: One Real Hard Storm and Da Bears Win

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH: Listened to Rock and Roll Roots on WDRV and recorded Breakfast With the Beatles in the morning, as usual.

We started getting storm warnings and a tornado watch by 9 AM. With it being as warm as it has been around here in November, that usually signals "Watch Out! Something bad is on its way!!" Getting quite windy. Liz said that she heard someone say the last time we had barometric readings and storms like were on their way was 1975 when the Edmund Fitzgerald sank.

Drove to Squaw Bar and met up with the Usual Suspects for Da Bears game. Weather continued to worsen and, about six minutes into the game with Da Bears down 10-0, the game went into rain delay and fans were ordered to go below the stands for the approaching storm. That ended up with a two-hour delay.

CBS, which was carrying the game, went to two hours of weather reports. And, the news was grim. The little town of Washington, Illinois, near Peoria, had been clobbered and we had reports that Coal City and Diamond near Chicago had been hit by tornadoes.

We had big winds and heavy rains off and on at the Squaw Bar and once, a really strong breeze blew through the place. I had to move the car to another spot as I was near some trees that had lost a lot of smaller limbs during the windburst as there was fear bigger ones would fall or perhaps the tree itself.

The game started again and the field quickly became a quagmire after all that rain, but Da Bears were able to tie it up and won in overtime in a game that started at noon but didn't end until about 5:30.

When we got home, I looked out back to see if there was any damage, but it was too dark to see. The next morning I found that the Bradbury pear tree on Frances' Back 40 had blown down.

Quite the Day! --RoadDog