Inland Hurricane?

Tonight a short but very wild storm ripped through Cranbrook, BC.
I heard the thunder advancing, and my power went out. I decided to go for a walk. I could see the advancing dark clouds. As I lingered in the street, I could see dust kicked up in either direction, wind swirling. Then the rain drops started, gradually increasing in frequency. It was an eery scene. A firetruck went by with lights flashing. I turned around and saw the large weeping willow I usually park under writhing about as if it had many muscly tentacles instead of branches. I went back indoors. I busied myself closing windows, observing fan blades spinning of the wind's own will. Soon the torrent was upon the town. I stood in the balcony captivated by the sheets of water blowing across the courtyard.
Afterwards the phone calls. Power lines had fallen on an occupied RV. A tree had fallen on a house. The phone calls painted an ugly picture, but were only a sample of what had happened. Surveying the town after, I can only send my best wishes out to the families affected by the onslaught. As best I could tell nobody was hurt, but many trees and power lines were down.
As I type this, I am without power, but being that I have suffered no property damage, I think I got off lucky.

Were you affected? Comment.

My Fail & MITx' Win!

Well, I failed.

I was taking the first offering by MITx, but my lack of knowledge in calculus resulted in a poor score, and the fact that I'm working full time while trying to spend some time with my lady (two full time jobs, anyone?) made trying to learn calculus inside of a week a bit more of a challenge than it already should be. It was good though, until the lessons started going over my head. I look forward to observing what other courses are offered by institutions like MIT in the future, and hopefully they are free!