Springtime in South Bend

High winds wrought havoc at the University of Notre Dame yesterday, bringing down dozens of trees and even toppling one of the spires adorning Sacred Heart Basilica. Thankfully nobody was injured. It must be graduation time! I vividly recall my graduation weeekend at Notre Dame, when robust thunderstorms swept through the area and a lightning bolt scored a direct hit on the top of my dorm (Carroll Hall) in the middle of the night. Ahh, good times. And, of course, some students saw in yesterday's wind storm a unique opportunity to help begin the cleanup effort by taking home a souvenir. Or an armful of souvenirs. Look for "Basilica Bits" to start showing up on ebay any day now.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. When I was a student at Notre Dame they were demolishing the old fieldhouse, and I still have a couple of the bricks that I picked up on a late night trip to the site.

Hopefully they'll get the place cleaned up in time for graduation. I suspect that they'll be able to scrape together the money to repair the Basilica from somewhere.