Tornado warnings!

"It was a dark and stormy night."

Other than it being Thursday and my last night of work 'til Monday, I had an urgency to get home last night. I had heard the weather radios going off with warnings all evening. I had talked to Patty Lou twice getting updates as to how she was doing at home, she didn't sound worried so I wasn't panicking, yet. Done at 8:30, (it's usually around 10) I left for home. The radio was issuing still more weather warnings which were getting closer to home as the clock ticked on. About 10 miles from the house it started raining, no, RAINING! The wind was calm, but mixed with the rain was golf ball sized hail pounding on the car, me thinking the windshield was going to break any minute. I kept going though, I Had to get home. About two miles from home the warning came over the radio that a tornado had been sighted 5 miles west of the house. I pulled in the driveway, Patty Lou is standing under the carport smoking, it pouring down. I never even shut the engine off. I yelled at her to grab the dog and get in the car, NOW! A minute later we were racing away from the storm heading toward the creek where we could get under the bridge and out of the old house trailer we live in. It has been enclosed with a roof over and additions, but it's still no place to be in a tornado. We get under the bridge, sharing the safety with another couple, and listened to the radio tell us that another tornado had been spotted just north of the first one. The rain was still intense, but in 30 minutes it all came to a stop. Easing back home, we found everything intact with no damage. We turned on the TV and found that the first tornado went 5 miles south of us, and the second 5 miles north of us. Over the years of living here, it seems that's the norm for our area, or maybe the big book of fate still has something special that I have to be here for, I don't know. I found out this morning that there wasn't any damage anywhere near us, but the western part of the state was hit pretty hard. Now, the sun is shining, the air is crisp and clear, and everything is clean and beautiful. It's nice how Mother Nature does that for ya. She'll scare the P-water out of you and then tell you everything is just fine when the sun comes up. I'd like to have a little talk with her though. Her timing was just a bit early last night. I'd rather be home before she gets all worked up the next time!

Stephanie