I've walked around the neighborhood some over the past few days and have determined that our house marks the limit of the damage. The house next door on the side away from the storm suffered no damage at all, but on the side closer to the storm every house (all the way to the cul-de-sac about a quarter mile downhill) has been damaged or destroyed. There are mountains of debris all the way down the hill.

And then there are the post-tornado sounds.

On this nice sunny Sunday morning it is weirdly annoying to hear so near by the hammering, the nail guns, the chainsaws, and the bulldozers.

Also, I realized just now that my office TV has been tuned to the Weather Channel for the past week. I must have some psychological damage not to have already noticed that every time the cable returns after a few hours off-line, it pops on with the current weather conditions.

I'm worried that a squirrel (or squirrels!) got trapped inside the walls before the contractor blocked off the holes left when our dining room window was sucked out of its frame. In addition to the sounds mentioned above, I hear faint scratching sounds that come from different parts of the house at different times.

And our dogs are barking pretty much non-stop as the work trucks go up and down the street and as the work crews shout back and forth.

We're so used to living in a very quiet neighborhood that my nerves are fraying around the edges.

I think I'll change the channel on the TV to CNN and see if the news will settle me down.

Not very likely! News is nearly always annoying noise.