Hiding in my Bathtub
So, this evening found me surprised by the storm siren going off and telling me to take shelter. Now the thing is that even though it had been stiflingly hot today with still winds (classic pre-tornado symptom in the textbooks) there was no indication that we would be getting any bad weather at all. No possibilities of rain or anything were noted – at least not by me, maybe the National Weather Service knew – and I had been out and about earlier in the day. All seemed well. So, I was on the phone with my grandmother with the alert sirens went off. And, since she pays more attention to the weather here than I do – even if she does live in Odessa – she was the first to tell me that it was a tornado warning. (Which is the next level up from a tornado watch.) So, I turned on the weather and saw this:
Not pretty. At least, not when it means you have to lock yourself in the bathroom with your cat, no tv, and with the power blinking on and off. Fortunately, my wireless connection was still going so I went to wundergound.com and watched the radar.
When the storm finally got here it was blowing very, very strong winds, sheeting rain so that I couldn’t see out my windows (not that I lingered by them), and I could hear it all from my bathroom…which the most secure room in my place, relatively far from outside walls and windows. Typically, when I shut the bathroom door I can’t hear my tv – but I could hear the winds and rain. That should tell you something.
Anyway, the worst part has passed me by and I think Ricardo’s place is in the clear now as well.
The good news is: not only am I alive and well, but I found the AA batteries for my flashlight!
No idea when or where the tornado was spotted. Most of the area seems to be safe from the weather as it moves East. Lucky metroplex, you and your heat bubble.
GOODNESS! I’m glad you and Ricardo and Sebastian are all ok. The big news here is that Lupe Singh submitted her official resignation at the School Board Meeting last night. The gossip here this afternoon (which was relayed by a friend while I was at Bath & Body Works) was that I had dropped the grievance suit in exchange for getting Lupe Singh to resign. NOT EVEN CLOSE!!!! Liz
Oh boy, I’ve never had to worry about tornados. With me it was all earthquakes growing up, and you don’t get a warning about those! Plus they come and go very quickly. I can’t imagine locking myself in a small room for any length of time waiting for a storm to pass… does not sound fun at all! :s Glad you got through it ok!
Thanks! Yeah, being in the bathroom wasn’t all that fun, but the storm was moving really quickly so I wasn’t in there for too long. I’m glad I never had to be around earthquakes! I kept my cool in the storm, but I think even a small earthquake would see me to the loony bin.
For Aunt Liz: I’m glad she resigned, hopefully that will make life easier for everybody. I hope the gossip dies down, though. It’s weird how people come up with their own version of events.
For Cristina: you seem to get the weirdest word verifications on the site, I have cambia Digital…but it’s not nearly as mock-able as your last two.
Hi! Uncle David wants to know how you put the radar information on your blog (if you can tell him it will make him EXTREMELY HAPPY!). I got my copy of the paperwork submitted by Ms. Singh et.al. regarding my grievance. There are a number of letters, notes, etc. that I have NEVER seen! The gossip mongers here are saying that I dropped the grievance when Lupe Singh resigned (NO WAY JOSE!). I am preparing my rebuttal to send to the attorney; just have to figure out how to reinstall Microsoft Home and Office 2007 because I accidentally deleted it! Liz
I saved the image to my computer – it’s an animated .gif so the animation runs itself – and then uploaded to to my page from where I’d saved it on my computer. I think you can also do it with a link to the picture, but the way I would do that requires HTML – which isn’t hard, but takes some explaining.
Hope that helps!