Yesterday when I left for work at 0530 the temperature was 51, it was raining cats and dogs, not just a simple light rain but a mighty down pour. My garage is 100' from the house so I was soaked by the time I got to the garage. Getting on the highway and the rain is now blowing horizontal and my truck is being pushed to the shoulder.

Normally the drive takes me 15 minutes, but yesterday morning it took 25 minutes. Visibility was down to 100' or so. Mind you its December 23 and I live in Michigan and the temp is 51! I get to work, and notice the lights are flickering on and off and finally go out. Power was lost for 2.5 hrs, got the generator fired up and had enough power to keep the radios and most importanly the coffee maker going. For the next two hours the winds where blowing in excess of 50mph, with gusts up to 70. Its literally a hurricane going on outside.

The towns to the east and west of us lost power, it black as coal outside, with a strange whitish glown of the town to the west. Turns out the there was a full moon, and with some breaks in the clouds the light from the moon was casting the eerie glow over the town.

By 0830 the power finally comes back on, I went outside to power off the generator, and noticed the building next to our base was missing more than a 1/3 of its roof shingles, and a 20' blue spruce had been up rooted. Light covers from the base where laying in the parking lot, branches and trash litter the grounds around the hospital and apartments, and the temperature is now 28. A 23 degree drop in two hours. The winds are averaging 30-45 mphs. It looks like a war zone outside.

The tones drop for a man down, possible suicide. We stage a few hundred yards from the scene, and a minute or two later we are called in. As we pull up I can see a man laying supine on the frozen ground that is his drive way, a shotgun not to far from him. My partner sighs, the silly season has began.

Sure enough, our victim decided that life wasnt worth living for any more and ended his life with a single shot gun blast through the roof of his mouth. I was surprised by little amount of blood there was, the exit wound was to the left side of his skull. Neighbors found him while they were taking their daily walk.

Found out later that the deceased was served divorce papers. We clear the scene and head back to the base in silence, only to hear my partner say, the silly season.

A few hours later the tone drop again, man unresponsive, possible suicide. The silly season has surely begun.