A tornado touched down not far from our house this afternoon!

I know that about 2:30, it started pouring all of a sudden. I was at my mother's helping her proofread a Japanese-to-English translation she's been working on, and just as we finished, the first drops started pelting down. By the time we completed the short drive to my house, it was raining so hard I got drenched just making the short run from the street to the porch.

I went down to the basement to rescue the laundry I'd left in the dryer, and heard a pattering noise outside. Looking out the basement windows, I was, like, "Is that hail?"

Sure enough, when I ventured outside to retrieve the laundry I'd hung on the clothesline this morning, there were little balls of ice on the ground.

Shortly after I came back inside, my mother called to tell me that a tornado had touched down on Walden Avenue (near our house) and that they were talking about it on the news.

I turned on the TV, and sure enough, there was a live report about the tornado. It was kind of weird to see that the Subway lostsatyr and I have gotten dinner from a time or three, and pass by quite a bit, had had holes put in its roof by the tornado.

At least everyone we know is fine (at least, to our knowledge), and there were no major injuries (at least, according to the news reports).

But still...whoa!