Riding The, Er, Storm Out

The kids and I spent about an hour in the basement last night, listening to 'CCO and...just chatting.

It was actually kind of fun. We don't get a lot of time to just sit and talk, anymore. Being teenagers (12 and 14, anyway) they don't generally like sitting and chatting with Dad. It's rare when none of us have anything else to do. It was kind of nice. It helped that Saint Paul is on the east edge of the metro - the urban heat island effect pretty much guarantees that any storm will be pretty well washed out over Minneapolis before it gets to us.

So I had a good time. It wasn't nearly as nice for everyone:

One man died Wednesday when a tree branch fell on him in Minneapolis as a string of severe storms pushed through the Twin Cities area, crunching trees and toppling power lines.

Minneapolis police said the 45-year-old man was hit by a falling tree branch at about 7:30 p.m. in the 5200 block of James Avenue North. His name was not immediately released.