Stormy Night

Ever since the Joplin tornado, I’ve been a little nervous about bad storms. I was in a bit of a precarious situation the night of the tornado and I’ll never forget my friend, Vicky, calling me during the middle of the night to check on me. I was in a cabin on a lake . . alone . . and had no cell phone service. I was hearing the news of what had happened in Joplin, and one of the hospitals had been hit and I wasn’t sure how close the tornado was coming to where I was staying. I was the only one in any of the cabins . . it was just a crazy night. My phone rang and I think it was close to midnight. I had been checking the phone for hours hoping for a signal and when it rang, I was never so happy to hear a phone ring. I asked Vicky to call Vince and tell him I was ok. That night, I promised myself that if I ever got out of that cabin, I was not going to be far from my basement the next time bad storms were predicted. We knew that night was going to be bad. 

We have bad weather predicted for tonight. It should get here about 1 a.m., which means Rita will keep us up. I’m trying to stay up to deal with her so Vince can sleep but I’m not sure I’ll make it til the storms pass.

We do get tornadoes here but they’re rare .. nothing like Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. There are very few basements in this area due to the shifting sands or limestone/rock formations just below the dirt. I don’t know exactly why but I know they don’t build houses with basements here. Tonight I am wishing we had one. Some people have outdoor storm shelters here and some of them are very nice. We’ve talked about it and it could double as a root cellar but we’ve never done anything about getting one.

Chad always thought I was crazy because on a stormy night, I made sure we all went to bed with pants that we could grab and sturdy shoes so we could walk out, hopefully without getting cut or a nail in our foot in the event of damage. We always keep flashlights by our beds and on a stormy night, I keep my phone handy.

Once there was a storm somewhere and the news crew was out the next morning and some little old lady was out in her nightgown with a few curlers in her hair . . on national news. I always think about that. Not that anyone cares but I would like to have on jeans and a T-shirt and not what I normally sleep in. 

I’m actually more concerned about my garden than I am my own safety. Hail is a very likely possibility.

This is my moon and stars watermelon. See the stars? I thought about putting something over it and putting a rock on top to protect it from hail but I didn’t. I’m hoping for the best with the garden, hoping for the best for everyone dealing with storms the past few days and the next few days.

For now, it’s a night of late night knitting . . waiting to console Rita when she hears the first sounds of thunder. It won’t be long . . it’s getting closer and closer. It does look like it’s fairly narrow so maybe it won’t last long. Hopefully you’ll hear from me again.  🙂