Last night was a terror. We had a strong low pressure area go through just north of us. The winds cranked around it and we got the brunt. It began late in the afternoon with sustained winds around 25 to 30 mph. By 9:30 pm they were at 40 sustained with gusts around 60.

At news time, 11:00 pm, I had to support four cats on my lap, and they were trembling. The wind shook the front porch as if it was going to tear it off the foundations. Aluminum siding blew past my house and against parked cars. Limbs skidded down the street. Sirens sounded everywhere and I must have seen fire vehicles and ambulances go by every few minutes.

I stepped out on the leeward side of the house to check on the roof. It was making terrible noises and I worried about losing some of the tin. A gust nearly blew me off my feet. It roared like a tornado, which can occur at night. But usually in straight-line wind storms you don't get twisters. At night you can't see one but the flashes of light as a tornado rips electric wires and transformers is a dead giveaway that one is coming. There were plenty of flashes but they were limbs crashing down the wires.

I didn't lose power but the lights flickered constantly. So I decided to stay up until the wind subsided.

Toledo's CBS TV channel went off the air. A few of the cable channels were fuzzy, as if a connection had gone down.

One channel remained on news watch until I finally went to bed around two a.m. Tiffin reported a gust of 78 mph, but I think we had many at that level. I have been in a hurricane, and it reminded me of that night. I would not be surprised to read that our top gusts were near 85 mph.

Trees and poles are snapped off. Wires down everywhere. The schools are either closed because their power is off, or they are on a 2-hour opening delay.

When I went to bed, I let the cats sleep on the bed with me. We lay there and listened to the wind and the roof until who knows what time. Every time something smacked against the house a cat or two would scrunch closer to me.

Tomorrow is Friday the 13th. That will be the day before St. Valentine's Day, which is Bisbee Bird's 8th birthday. We will have a party on Saturday and sing to him. The cats love parties, because it means albacore tuna and cottage cheese. I enjoy Friday the 13, because I get to put on my white hockey mask and scare the hell out of people.

Oh well. The wind is down to about 25 mph. That's good.

And the cats will nap all day because they were awake most of last night.

So was I.