Like I said, wild and woolly ... I spent the day with computer troubles ... during a rare large tornado. We had very unusual conditions. The wind was cold and out of the south east. Traveling at 30 to 52 mph, it rushed up against the front range causing an updraft forcing the air to circle around back on itself. The tornado was from 3/4 to a mile wide and traveled 35 miles. Then either formed again, or skipped over to Laramie, Wyoming and formed again. Windsor, Colorado got the worst of the storm. The photo on the right is someones house. Or was ... At the left is a photo of the tornado. You can see how wide it 
was, and when you think of it traveling at 30 to 52 mph, you could hardly get out of the way. I mean we're talking speed limit speed here! On the west side of Greeley it took out a dairy. They lost about 25 cows, and had a time rounding up the other 375. They had trucks come in and transport them to safer ground. But think of their mess. They are milk cows that have to be milked twice a day. They have no barn. And that is a lot of cows to deal with without the proper setup. I wouldn't want to hand milk 375 cows. The tornado took out several new housing developments in Windsor, but also some of the old historic section of the small town. It is estimated that over 100 homes were lost.
This photo is from the old section of town. I don't know what business, but it might have been a mill at one time. And then there was the assorted vehicles turned over on the road. The storm also turned over five tanker railroad cars, and there was at least one grain train car that was upended. Over turned vehicles littered the highway along the tornado's full path.
The most poignant picture I saw while watching the news was a young boy, maybe 10, and he was standing at what looked like curbside. He had a hold of his dogs leash, and he was hugging his pillow to his chest. His eyes were full of shock and disbelief. At least I only have to re-rake and not rebuild. I am counting my blessings.As for my computer troubles ... thinking about how to tell you the story, it is so complicated. All I wanted to do was install software to connect two computers together for the purpose of transferring files. Sounds slick and simple. Well, it wasn't. And when I finally got to the point of printing out the instructions so I had them right there in my face, the computer froze up on me. The monitor went blank and stayed blank. It had a sort of glow in the background, and the on/off button wouldn't turn it off. Nothing worked, and my daughter and her husband are telling me it is dead. Dead Jim. Possibly there was a surge during the storm, and even though I have a surge protector, it killed my lovely new flat panel monitor. I'm told that is a problem with them. Or can be. It is new enough to be under warranty, but I so hate the hassle. At least I do have my laptop, (I haven't killed that yet), and I was able to unplug the satellite cable from the desk top and plug it right in. So far that is working perfectly for me.
It is midnight thirty and after the day today I think I'd best shut down and go to bed.
I hope you all had a much better day!
Be well and take care.
Credits: These photos were taken from the news coverage of CBS 4 Denver.com. The photo of the tornado, specifically was an Ullmann photo.
