Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Who Needs Cable?

The weather yesterday was a' moving and a' shaking.

Shortly after the boys and I came home from school the sky began to darken considerably and the wind died completely down. When we checked the weather report on TV we saw that not only was there a severe thunderstorm on its way, but that a tornado had been sighted nearby as well. We sprang into action; the boys brought our nine head of cat into the house, while I battened down the windows.

It was actually rather anticlimactic. After hunkering in the hallway for about ten minutes, I went out to see where the storm was. Evidently it skirted our area and we only had a smattering of hail. But Bea wasn't as lucky. she pulled up in my driveway at that moment, exclaiming, "Jaysus H. Key-rist! I've never been so happy to be home!" Driving home from work, she had been right in the middle of the golf ball sized hail. She heard on the radio that we had a tornado in town, but she couldn't see anything other than torrential rain and the incessant ponging of hail on her seemingly frail little Toyota. It was at that point she was forcibly reminded of the movie "Twister" we had just watched last week - the part where they know the tornado is upon them but they can't see it. Oh yeah, she was having one of those never-ending high blood pressure moments.

She headed home and shortly afterwards, the Hubinator rolled in. He had come from the other side of the storm and driven through pretty much the same cats, dogs, and hail thing as Bea. He was surprised to see it hadn't done much here at the abode, although we did find evidence of some hail in the yard, and Bea had said the ground was covered in hail just three blocks north of us.

Whew! Did I mention how grateful I am it passed us by? Back in September we had a tornado come right down the street. It passed withing 30 feet of our house, ripping up almost a dozen trees in our immediate vicinity. That was too damn close. The kids and I hunkered in the hall, and the poor Bohemian, who I had pulled out of the shower, was only wearing a hand towel as we huddled together. Afterwards, I went out to try and assess the damage and clear the driveway for the man. As I was clearing the debris, something brushed the back of my head. Not thinking, I reached, and grabbed a power line of some kind. I looked at it in my hand and screamed like one of those stupid girls in a horror film, never letting go of the line. Kids - don't try this at home. Luckily for my Doofoid self, it was just a TV cable line, but what a classic scary movie scene it was - me out there screaming. I tell you - I'm dull bulb at times.
So we only got a nice soaking and a bit of drama, which is just dandy with this girl.

And the sunset was amazing.

16 comments:

Chanda (aka Bea) said...

You said it girl! Nothing like a little weather to get the heart pumping. While I was driving through all that crap I kept humming the tornado music from The Wizard of Oz. "It's a twister! It's a twister!"

Gorgeous pictures though! I love the sunset one. It looks like a Maxfield Parish(sp? cuz you know I can't) painting.

flutter said...

absolutely nothing better than a beautiful sky

Julie Pippert said...

I'm glad it skirted you too. Can I say that I totally have the visual and auditory image of you, screeching, holding the cable?

P.S. My word verification is ickwad. No joke.

Zephyr said...

I can picture myself doing the exact same thing with the cable! LOL

FairiesNest said...

We didn't get a drop here!...Go figure!

Your American Idol! said...

Verifiable quarter-dollar size hail! Amazing.

Alas, I'm reminded of the story from some years back that when pre-talk show David Letterman was doing the weather for an Indianapolis TV station,he was fired for forecasting "hail the size of canned hams...."

I live in the heart of Wisconsin's tornado alley. It's kind of like an extra springtime sport, guessing when the funnels might actually touch down nearby.

Ms.Q said...

Wow,

Great pictures my friend. I bet the Bohemian was glad that he was in more than a hand towel for this scare!

I got trapped in that rain on my way to work as well. I was lucky though..no hail.

Ms.Q

S said...

that is a GORGEOUS sunset photo.

as for the cable line, good GOD would that have scared me. i would have been screaming, too!

Heather said...

Ack! Tornadoes are an utter fear of mine. I deal with hurricanes and, hey, we know they are coming well enough in advance. But tornadoes...scare the you know what out of me.

Gypsy said...

Tornadoes scare the piss out of me. I don't ever want to be in one.

I'm with the queen -- gimme a hurricane.

Anonymous said...

Yoinks. That is one big old hailball. (Piece of Hail? Hailflake?) whatever. are you sure you didn't stage that with an ice cube from your fridge for dramatic effect?

Glad you escaped unscathed.

Anonymous said...

You know what I love about this post? I mean, what I love best?

That Bea pulled into YOUR driveway and said she was happy to be home.

;)

Glad you're safe....

Bantering Bibliocrat said...

shudder...brings back the near-misses from our eternity (ok, 7 years) in Arkansas on the edge of tornado alley. driving by housetops in the road after a severe storm ripped through Little Rock...
glad it was minor..

Jennifer S said...

Good god, woman, you gave me high blood pressure with this post! Glad the storm missed you.

Anonymous said...

I've only seen one tornado in my life. Wife and I were on our honeymoon, driving through Colorado, when a helluva storm whipped up. We pulled off the freeway into a gas station (not smart, methinks) and saw the tornado pass over the road and head for a hill across the valley. Very scary.

My dad got picked up in one once whilst driving a little VW way back in the day. It picked him up off the road (just outside the Kansas state line) and sat him back down in a ditch. Three seconds of sheer terror.

Egads . . .

(I came over here via OFD. What a treat . . . )

Brian

woolies said...

wow what awesome pics. How was Teddy??