1. We had a bit o’ weather come through here on Friday. If you live somewhere along the east coast you probably caught some of the same. Big rain. Big storms. Big hail. Oh, and maybe a tornado or two. This was a good news, bad news, et cetera situation.
2. Good news: We have a basement. Since I don’t plan to build a bunker this is as good as it gets for storm protection around here. Solid awesomeness.
3. Bad news: There’s a lot of windows down there. A LOT. Basically a wall of windows. Which is good when you’re looking at the birds and the trees and the pretty pretty flowers, but when you’re watching torrential rain with potentially dangerous winds and flying debris? Not so good.
4. Good news: There’s a small office in the basement with zero windows – quite a few boxes, yes, but no windows. Plus a teeny bathroom. No windows in there either. Score.
5. Bad news: We had a lot of bodies to smoosh in those spaces. There were three solid sized teens here, plus the two big dogs (one of whom was being cranky with our friend), the kitty, and me. Yikes.
6. Good news: I have absolutely no problem lying to my kid who gets panicky in stressful situations. When that one asks if everything’s okay the answer is yes. Always yes. Unless I’m bleeding profusely from a head wound and need them to call 911, everything’s fine thankyouverymuch.
7. Bad news: The buggers are oddly perceptive at the most inconvenient times. On your average Tuesday it’s, “Fine, I’ll take out the trash later.” but factor in meteorologists predicting impending doom and suddenly it’s all, “Hey, mom? Is everything okay?”
8. Good news: They drop it when I answer yes. And by some miracle I managed to hustle upstairs, grab shoes, a flashlight, and extra blankets, then scoot back to the office without breaking into a telltale sweat. Kinda. I might have been a little wheezy, but that also could have been because I was wrestling Phoebe into the bathroom and she was Not Having It. Bless her whole heart BUT GET IN THE DAMN BATHROOM, DOG.
9. As the kids found out, I don’t play. Tornado warning? Let’s watch tv in the basement, it won’t kill you to hang out down there. But when a meteorologist says the cone’s tracking directly overhead, the cells are tight, and it’s hitting in four minutes? Hell’s bells, don’t complain to me about how you don’t have your good pillow from your bed, just get in the office. (Sure, sure, everything’s fine, got the cat?)
10. The kids already had a lockdown at school that morning for a tornado warning. Bear’s classmate got upset but our kid’s perspective seems to be if it’s her time to go then nothing she does would change that. I get it. I’m a believer. I’m also a believer in being prepared. So if it’s our time to go, okay, but it can’t be our time to go because we didn’t bother to walk twenty extra steps to another room. Get on board.
Riddle from the Middle 
Every time we have a tornado (we’re the end of tornado alley) I miss our basement. BUT, this house has been here 100 years and I feel like that’s a good sign. It does not, as my husband has implied, indicate it’s time for it to fly away in a twister.
In Georgia, we had a storage room, bout 10×15. We played board games in there til it passed.
Here, we have to hang out in the linen closet in the bathroom. It’s not nice.
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Hmm…killing time with the sheets and pillowcases does sound boring. Maybe you should stash a supply of wine and chocolate in one of the towels. That could improve the situation. 😉
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It’s a large closet, but there’s no room after we’re all in it. And did everyone wear her deodorant today? Heh!
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Ah, so maybe THAT’S what you stash between the towels! 😆
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*SNORT*
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Jeez! How terrifying!! We live in a Hurricane Alley, so I feel you on the hunker down. It ain’t cute or pretty and it’s hard to hide the terror from the kids. So sorry you had to have that experience, it’s so horrific thinking about losing everything you own or worse. Yay that you lived to tell (write) about it!
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That’s how I always know I’ve come out the other side — I’ll start thinking about ways to use something in my writing. I always process better that way. 🙂
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I grew up when and where the sirens MEANT something. About ten years ago while living in Ohio (aka tornado central), apparently they changed the meaning of the sirens going off to “um, there’s a cloud overhead.” Be that as it may, I was taking a continuing education class over a weekend and the WAAAAAAAAAAHHHH of the siren went off. Those of us with sense dove for the interior bathroom of the building. After a while, sirens still screaming, the instructor comes in (he’s from Central IL, probably even more tornado prone than where we were in Ohio) and “suggests” that we resume. We were all like, yeah… no. Like you said (sort of), it would be kinda embarrassing to die just because you couldn’t sit still for a while.
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Right?! ‘Go ahead, try to convince me your continuing ed is worth my life, I dare you.’ Sheesh!!
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well Dorothy, how was the tornado ride???
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Not too bumpy. (Knock on wood!!) Just some dark skies, big rain, big wind here. 🙂
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I’ve lived through two “tornadoes”. I say that with the reminder that we get earthquakes out here, NOT TORNADOES. Dammit. The first was really devastating, and took out a lot of stuff in downtown Salt Lake City, plus killed one stupid guy, who decided that being out in that kind of weather (to gather his idiotic plastic tubing from a stall he had been trying to set up) was worth his life. The second was up north here and I was driving up I-15. It got incredibly dark and when I looked to the west I was shocked to see a cone cloud heading right for my location. I pulled off under a bridge (along with every other sensible individual on the road) and waited out the worst of the storm. Visibility was zero. Finally the cone passed and it just rained incredibly hard. My cousin’s house was 15 minutes off the freeway and I went there and stayed with her until later in the evening when the storm passed. Scary shit whereever you spend your time.
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That right there is one of my worst nightmares. Getting caught on the road in one of those storms? Yikes. Only thing that could make it worse would be to have kids in the car – it is SO hard to keep my shit together in front of them sometimes!
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Well except for the weird clouds in the sky (which I later learned was the cone of the tornado) I didn’t know anything was going on until that torrential and blinding rain. You couldn’t see anything two feet in front of you, literally. I saw the bridge and immediately pulled over after I got underneath. A bunch of others did too, and we watched stuff blowing around and the rain making it so dark people were using their headlights. Later when I saw the news and heard what it was, I freaked out a little. At least I didn’t have any children in the car to deal with or I’m sure I’d have lost it too!
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It seems there is no end to the dangerous weather episodes this year. Do you suppose it’s payback for our current government and society?
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It’s sure payback for something, isn’t it.
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Since you’ve written the post, I imagine the tornado passed you by. I don’t believe we live in a tornado-prone area, but if we did get a tornado warning, my new[er] house does have a nice solid basement with few windows – and a small panty with no windows. Better yet – the pantry is built under the stairs, and I understand that’s the safest area in a house during a tornado. Even better yet – I have turned the pantry into my wine cellar. Maybe I would hear the wind howling outside, but I sure wouldn’t care.
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That sounds like a solid plan. Talk about making the best of a situation. 🙂 🍷
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My wife might have said “you guys get in that office with the dogs. I’ll be in the bathroom with the cat.” We don’t live in tornado country, but we’ve had three come through our tiny little town. Good job herding everyone.
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Herding is an apt description. 😆😆
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Stay safe. I suspect we would be in trouble if Yorkshire started getting tornadoes. We are on a hill with no basement…. we have 2 umbrellas.
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Indeed. Not much an umbrella can do for you in that situation!!
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Glad you are safe and that’s a tough balancing act –
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It’s always harder with the kids around. You gotta handle the situation, the stress, & keep the freakout to a minimum. 😆
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Stay safe.
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We were lucky in our area.
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That’s good.
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