Stormy Weather Redux
Geez, you get end of the school year stuff, wedding stuff, hubby's birthday, Mother's Day, upcoming birthdays and Father's Day, spring stuff, and the next thing you know, you haven't done a blog post for a month. Whatever.
When we lived in Minnesota, I discovered that there are times that you spend the entire day just dealing with the weather. You get up, it's snowing, you have to either shovel or plow or both. The kids have to bundle up, schlep through it, you have to take extra drive time. If you are running errands, every time you come back to the car, you have to scrape off more snow and ice, everything takes longer. The kids come home from school, take off the boots, snowpants, coats, hats, gloves, toss them on the floor (we didn't have a mud room, there was nowhere else to put it). Then you have soggy clothes and a wet floor. They have a snack, put the clothes back on, go out to play while you clean up the floor. They come back in and everything is on the floor again. You gather it up, put it in the dryer, clean up the floor again.
I've also discovered that there are times in Oklahoma that you spend the entire day just dealing with the weather. Not hands-on like the snow, but paying attention. To where the 'severe weather' is, where it's headed, how long it's going to last, and where you're going to go if it's headed your way, having to check and shut off the weather radio fifty times. You learn what a meteorologist means when he says things like: rain wrapped (you're screwed, you can't see it), hook echo (you could be screwed if it's coming towards you), mezocyclone (well, that's just not good), wall cloud (ditto).
A couple of days ago, hubby and I were out garage sailing (yeah, spelled wrong, I thought it was punny) west of town. We stopped at a shop called Antiques and Things. The proprietors were out back looking at the increasingly bad weather and saying that there was rotation, always a bad thing. So we headed back into town (the opposite direction)and stopped at the grocery store before we went home. While we were checking out, the sirens went off. We have discussed where to go in this event, ever since we moved to this house. We used to have a hidey-hole, aka, storm shelter, but now we have a room in the middle of the house with no windows. Just a washer, dryer, and a kitty litter box.
So, the worst of it went around us to the east or the west, but one came close. This is what I got standing in my back yard.
And here we have what they call 'the lowering.'
The amazing thing was that the clouds were all rotating. Not in a frenzied, tornado-like way, just very slowly, but quite clearly. And while you don't want these things hitting yours, or anyone else's, homes, there is something about them that is absolutely awe inspiring.
Having said that, it looks like we are in for a pretty bad tornado season, so please, keep us in your prayers. And maybe I'll get a few better photo ops.
When we lived in Minnesota, I discovered that there are times that you spend the entire day just dealing with the weather. You get up, it's snowing, you have to either shovel or plow or both. The kids have to bundle up, schlep through it, you have to take extra drive time. If you are running errands, every time you come back to the car, you have to scrape off more snow and ice, everything takes longer. The kids come home from school, take off the boots, snowpants, coats, hats, gloves, toss them on the floor (we didn't have a mud room, there was nowhere else to put it). Then you have soggy clothes and a wet floor. They have a snack, put the clothes back on, go out to play while you clean up the floor. They come back in and everything is on the floor again. You gather it up, put it in the dryer, clean up the floor again.
I've also discovered that there are times in Oklahoma that you spend the entire day just dealing with the weather. Not hands-on like the snow, but paying attention. To where the 'severe weather' is, where it's headed, how long it's going to last, and where you're going to go if it's headed your way, having to check and shut off the weather radio fifty times. You learn what a meteorologist means when he says things like: rain wrapped (you're screwed, you can't see it), hook echo (you could be screwed if it's coming towards you), mezocyclone (well, that's just not good), wall cloud (ditto).
A couple of days ago, hubby and I were out garage sailing (yeah, spelled wrong, I thought it was punny) west of town. We stopped at a shop called Antiques and Things. The proprietors were out back looking at the increasingly bad weather and saying that there was rotation, always a bad thing. So we headed back into town (the opposite direction)and stopped at the grocery store before we went home. While we were checking out, the sirens went off. We have discussed where to go in this event, ever since we moved to this house. We used to have a hidey-hole, aka, storm shelter, but now we have a room in the middle of the house with no windows. Just a washer, dryer, and a kitty litter box.
So, the worst of it went around us to the east or the west, but one came close. This is what I got standing in my back yard.
And here we have what they call 'the lowering.'
The amazing thing was that the clouds were all rotating. Not in a frenzied, tornado-like way, just very slowly, but quite clearly. And while you don't want these things hitting yours, or anyone else's, homes, there is something about them that is absolutely awe inspiring.
Having said that, it looks like we are in for a pretty bad tornado season, so please, keep us in your prayers. And maybe I'll get a few better photo ops.
posted by Mom Thumb at 8:20 PM
6 Comments:
Danny tricked me into going storm watching with him yesterday evening. I thought we were just going to NAPA to check things after being gone since Friday, and the next thing I know, we are north of Medford watching lowerings and rotation. I told him if I saw a ****ing cow go flying by, I was going to kill him(if the tornado didn't)
I just came across your blog entry "In Memory of" and all I can say is, thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Today is the day after Memorial Day and the tears have not stopped coming.
SSGT Chris Hake was my cousin and losing him was the hardest thing that has ever happened to our family. Thank you for coming, praying, and sending your love to our family.
You will never know how grateful the entire Hake Family is for all that the community did. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Wow, those photos are amazing.
Pretty in a scary way.
di - Storm chasing should definitely be a voluntary activity, and flying cows are never good. I can't believe you got an entire weekend away!
anonymous - I can't even begin to imagine what your family has been through. You are all still in my thoughts and prayers. Thank you all for the sacrifice you have made. God bless you.
heather - They really were pretty, but I was glad they were moving AWAY from us!
First off---as soon as I heard about the Ok. tornado the other day---I started praying for you and your family. I'm SO glad you didn't get hit. AND--how did you EVER have the nerve to go out and take pictures?!!! But they certainly are beautiful pictures!!
lois - I KNEW we were getting Lois prayers! Those pictures I literally took looking over the fence in our back yard. And believe me, if they hadn't been going away from us, I would have been running for the laundry room! BTW, happy birthday - I just mailed your card today, so it will be late.
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