I was out in the driveway with my camera and first I took a picture of the lilac bush over the fence.

And then as I was walking to the street, I turned and snapped the northwestern corner of the house through a flowering tree.

Turning back toward the street, I looked up at the old maple and got another picture.

Now, at this point I turn and look down the sidewalk to see if Summer is coming. Behind me I hear a thwack and when I look, I discover a large limb has fallen out of the tree and landed about six feet from me.

Gee, I remember they said the number one cause of death in the woods of the Midwestern frontier was falling tree branches . . . but this is 2008, Mr. Maple Tree, and I am almost taking this personally.

I’m going to go tell them in at the Peanut Butter Cafe & Roadhouse. Why that limb was as big around as the hulk’s arm. I figure in a couple of years the size of the limb in the telling of this story will be “about half a redwood”.

The tornado in Picher, Oklahoma. Okay, obviously I’m on a Jim Cantore kick here. We have been interested in watching Jim since “back in the day” and one time my son saw him behind a desk and exclaimed, “Look, it’s Jim Cantore in a building!” Now, that was news.

Hey, THIS (and HERE is the actual site page where you can enter a year) is a cool place to visit if you are interested in history. I’ve been sitting here plugging in ancestors’ names and seeing where they fall on the list of popular names for that year. Ida was popular when my great-aunt Ida was born. When I was in high school, there wasn’t one Ida in my whole class. Hey, I forgot to check my name . . . Okay, my name wasn’t popular then; I knew that.* However, the list looks as if it were taken from my class yearbook.

*Around number 500 on the list for girls; close to 600 on the list for boys.

Quentin, you were around 400; and, Robert, you were 5 – but then you were named for your grandpa. Bing, tell your buddy he was, I think, 10.