Storm over Coventry

I snapped these shots with my cell phone around 11 AM this morning at the Village at Coventry; I don't recall ever having seen a storm like this before. Shortly before these pictures, the sky was overcast, and looked dark off to the west. I then observed what looked like a white band across the front of a dark band of clouds roll across the horizon. There was wind and lightning in the cloud formation, but no rain fell during it's passover.




As the formation passed overhead, one could observe it to appear to be pushing the lighter sky in front of it out of it's way as it moved eastward. Then, within 2-3 minutes, blue skies and white clouds appeared behind the dark mass. You can see that in the back of this photo:


Here are a couple of linear shots as the storm reached the shopping center:

The blue skies and clouds behind the front didn't last long; the real storm was moments behind them and poured rain for about 30 minutes before finally clearing.

A visit from Senator Hillary Clinton

Senator Hillary Clinton visited Sara's Family Restaurant in the Village at Coventry in Fort Wayne on Friday. Many people were standing outside to listen to the presidential hopeful's message. A lucky few got passes to dine with her. Clinton's campaign handed out about 100 wristbands to get in on a first-come first-serve basis; with me (Stan Matuska) being one of those 100!

A lot of people asked me why I would want to attend. Those would be either Obama supporters or Republicans. I told them that for one, she was coming to a location about a block from my office. She is a former First Lady, and may even be the next President of the United States. She is a also a Democrat. There were also many other famous faces in the crowd, such as Win Moses, Karen Goldner and Mayor Tom Henry.

If nothing else, it was an interesting experience to see what goes into one of these appearances. The security was immense with buses blocking the sides of the restaurant, dogs (bomb sniffing?), secret service and police. There was a wall full of cameras and camera crew! Hillary sat at a table with six average citizens. The rest of the crowd were seated behind her. I was in the 3rd row behind her (about 10-12 ft). So most of my view of Hillary was the back side of her head.

Hillary let each person at her table ask her a question, then she took a few questions from the patrons. She was running about 45 minutes behind schedule and she still had to attend a Muncie Indiana rally. Most questions were about the economy and jobs. The entire event was shown live on local television. I found the video footage at an Indy site http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8087248 but it is very lengthy.

I actually asked permission to post this on this blog because I know John is, well, let's just say, not as fond of Hillary as he is of Obama =)

First and foremost, I want a Democrat to win the presidency. To get there, we need the Democrat most likely to beat McCain to win the nomination. I don't know if that's Hillary or Obama. I would think all Democrats would support the candidate who wins the nomination no matter which one it is.