The Loud Arrival of an Old Friend
After running fairly hard on Sunday evening (finally got to bed by 2:30 a.m. and then up at 6:00 for the kids) and staying out way too late for some Star Wars RPG last night, I finally fell over this morning at 11:00. (BTW -- What was I doing Sunday? I was at the Harddcore Hope benefit in Indy. If you wander over HERE then you will see some cool pics that night_harbinger took. I'm in the first shot. Can you find me??? Bonus Question -- can you find gollumgollum?? ) Yhup, pretty much just fell over. Was working on something and had the thought, "Wow, I'm really exhausted," and then I woke up two hours later. It was a good nap! Don't worry, I had the presence of mind to at least fall towards the bed cause that's where I woke up.
The afternoon was spent cleaning up the house from the weekend and then, shortly after Dominic and the little ones got home, it was time to run up the hill and get in the landlord's basement. Yay! I'd been watching the weather with about a quarter of perception since yesterday afternoon when Dirtgrrl mentioned on the way home from work, "You know, I was told once that clouds like that mean tornado weather..." After finding out that had been told to her by someone that worked for the Navy and a hurricane researcher, I thought I would get a REAL good look at those clouds and get them memorized.
Then, Dominic came home this afternoon and said, "Man, it was weird. There were SO many deer out. We saw all sorts of deer from the bus on the ride home.
Ranger brain goes **Click. Whirr. Clickety. CLICK!**
Why?
Here's why... Deer have two major senses which they use to stay alive in the wilderness, hearing and smell. Which two senses are the most screwy in windy rainy weather? When weather like earlier today hits, as I understand it, most deer will find a place to curl up and stay safe. Two of their five senses have just been shut down so why tempt it? But, why oh why would deer be out on a day like today? More importantly, why would they be out in such numbers that a bus full of hormone flooded teenagers would notice them? Remember, everything is connected. My initial thought was that there was a snowstorm on the way. Or, there was something on the way that would cause them to operate in hazardous conditions with two of their five senses non-functional. You don't go out to get food and forage in bad weather unless you think its going to get so bad you may not get to eat for awhile anyway. So, I went online and checked out the weather.
Oh.
Quick math put the supposed tornado over us in 15-20 minutes. No basement in our hourse and no vehicle to outrun it with. Anyone I could call would be driving through it to get to us. Nope. We were here and we were in it. Reports on the internet and the radio had it on the ground and moving directly at us at 65 miles an hour. I calmly started getting things ready and waited a few minutes before telling Dominic to turn on his radio and get on his shoes. Then, I had the little ones get their shoes on after I had heard enough and I called the landlord, asked if we could hang out in their basement. He, of course, agreed but would not let me bring Pooka inside his house. This... sucked... so... hard. Dominic cleared out his closet, I got a blanket, and I made one of the hardest decisions I've made in a while. (Luckily, I was in "Captain" mode so the emotional stuff didn't screw with me till later.) I put Pooka in the closet with blankets and prayers. Looked at the clock and then the window for the hundreth time. Yep, there it was, right on time. No funnel cloud or anything, of course, but I could see the system. Flashlight. Blanket. Jacket. Knife. Lighter. Called Dirtgrrl, told here where we were going. At one point I could hear in her voice as she calculated driving time from work to home. I cut her off mid-thought, "Don't you dare even think about coming out here and driving in what is coming this way. I'll call ya when its clear and safe." Then, we were out the door and walking quickly up in the rain and the wind. Dominic got a good look at the front once we were outside and let out an expletive in front of the little ones which freaked them out.
"Dude," I said, putting my hand on his shoulder, "keep it cool. They see YOU freak out, they will freak out. Keep it cool..."
He nodded and apologized. "Sorry, man, that.. uh.. thats just really scary." I ruffled his hair and encouraged the smaller ones that it MIGHT get a little dicey but chances were real good it would miss us entirely. One of my number one rules with the kids, never lie to them about storms and bad things. Don't pull your hair and scream, "We're all gonna get sucked into HELL!" either. The latter doesn't do well for Frankie's nerves... Instead, I forced them to stand out in it for a second and I educated them a bit as to what they were seeing. I showed them the windwall, I showed them what we were looking for, and I showed them why what we were looking at was dangerous. It took about twenty seconds total and Bella looked at me and said, "Can you, uh, show us this later cause' well, I don't wanna die."
I called her a spoilsport.
It was one of the fastest moving and nastiest cells I've seen hit in quite some time. We were damn lucky that thing had not put a finger on the ground. Inside, and in their basement, it just seemed like a bad thunderstorm. I was watching it by the basement door and out of nowhere, the wind shifted direction like a crack from a bullwhip and all hell broke loose. Landlord and I were both keeping our eyes on it and when it happened he and I both just shook our heads in unwritten Ranger speak. "Well... shit," was what we were saying to each other. The wind, which had been coming dominantly from the southwest cracked around and started blasting at us from the northwest and then a joint in his house popped. Then the lattice work blew off the back porch. Then a cow flew past the window.
No, just joking about the cow.
Behind us, the kids played with the landlord's girl and her dollies. Dominic was staying just behind us but looking outside as well. I asked Dominic to keep an eye on the kids and to get them under the table if I yelled. (They were at the table anyway.) He said ok and the two adults went upstairs to get a better look at the oncoming wind. Wow. I've been in worse but it was still pretty cool. *cheesy grin* The wind was blasting directly into the front of the landlord's front screened-in porch, coming directly from the North. I watched it a minute, at how ferocious it was rippling the screen, thrashing the big maple tree. I said, "Well, I think I'm done standing here," and headed back downstairs. His reply was, "Yeah, good idea." I marked the time and sure enough, it was on-time and on-target. Hats off to the National Weather Service and the coverage that Channel 6 was doing. Amazing stuff. I waited for a freight train noise. I waited to see a tree get snapped in two. I waited to see a cow. It really would have been proper at that point it was so fierce. I wouldn't have been surprised to see Bill Paxton flying by in a red pick-up truck yelling, "We got debris!"
And then, it was over. Just like that. *snaps fingers* Ten minutes later the satellite TV was back on and showing us that it was past us and east of Highway 37. (Later, the same big cell that streaked right over the top of us went on to terrorize Nashville and several points further northeast with several confirmed touchdowns. I'm still getting all the reports...) Of course, my first thought at that point was getting back to check on Pooka. Bundled the kids up, talked to them about what happened, ("That was fun, we got to play with her Toys!"), and tried to show them that it was important we took shelter but, hey, it really wasn't that bad, right? They agreed, it was fun! We got home and I immediately released Pooka from his closet shelter. I had HATED having to make that choice, that choice that was not a choice. Stay here with the kids and maybe get torpedoed or take my chances with Pook in a closet and get the kids to safety. It sucked. It sucked hard. Its called a command decision for a reason and they SUCK! But, when they happen, you just have to make the best call you can make with the time you have.
Regardless, he was very relieved and did not hold me accountable in any way or form. Actually, I believe he knew what was going on and was ok with it.
He got a nice treat.
And then....
I baked some fucking chocolate chip cookies!
I watched the TV and the radar and saw we were due for another wave in the evening. By the time Dirtgrrl got home and dinner was almost done, the new storms moving in looked like they were calming down. Dinner with a returned Dirtgrrl was specatacular grilled cheese sam'iches, raw baby carrots, and some tomato soup witch-doctered up a bit with some Coyote cook'n skills. We talked about our day, about the storm, and then, some went to clean the kitchen and others went to go watch Teen Titans. It was such a damn fine dinner/evening with the warm food, the wind blowing, and the outdoor chimes chiming that we failed to notice the second tornado warning go up. *sigh* Matter of fact, Dirtgrrl and I were in the living room and I was saying something when the rain, and wind, outside...just....stopped. I stopped what I was saying. She froze. I froze. She looked at me. I looked at her. And then, I literally dove for the remote and got it on Channel 6 and the radar. Oh neato! Look! There's a big red blob just East of our house and moving away! *rolls eyes*
Yeah, so much for being prepared. To think, my last meal would have been grilled cheese, tomato soup, and chocolate chip cookies. I can only thin--
Wait.
That's not that bad, really.
Anyway, what we had heard, well, NOT heard, was the backside of the front bringing us all these wonderful storms. A backside of a front that literally toggled like hot and cold. So, drastic of a change in fact that the western backside of the front was only a very thin band of green on the radar that was like a small shell around a big orange, red, and violet blob. No tapering off, no easy release of the pressure, nope, just BAM! the storm is done.
And, I said toggle of hot/cold for a reason. Matter of fact, I said it for a reason so I could hook this all up to what started it for us, the deer. You see, the deer were not out in bad weather because the tornado's and thunderstorms were coming. Well, they were, but what they were REALLY responding to is the cold front that will drop on us overnight. The same cold front that powered all these storms today. Tomorrow's forecast -- High of 39 degrees F with a very very light chance of some snow flurries.
Bundle up, chickies. All that today was just Summer and Fall's way of saying, "See ya next year!" I went out to the East and waved goodbye to them. "Take care, thanks for everything!" With a ferocious firing of guns, Autumn, and Summer who was sort of hanging out a bit with Autumn if you hadn't noticed, have both retired over the Eastern horizon.
Now, tonight, the winds of Winter's Advance Guard are causing Casa Big Sky to creak a bit from time to time. I can still hear the light chiming of the wind chimes we have by the kitchen window and by the driveway. I'm a'munching on chocolate chip cookies and sipping tea. The first traces of a chill are seeping into a country house that is quiet, peaceful. A completely zonked out Pooka is to my right, snoring just a bit no doubt,and no doubt running through dreams where he chases and kills all manners of tornadoes and, well, cheeseburgers. Cause, well, he's Pooka and he would not be Pooka if he didn't chase the cheeseburgers!
I love it out here.
Hello, Winter! How tha' Hell are ya???
The afternoon was spent cleaning up the house from the weekend and then, shortly after Dominic and the little ones got home, it was time to run up the hill and get in the landlord's basement. Yay! I'd been watching the weather with about a quarter of perception since yesterday afternoon when Dirtgrrl mentioned on the way home from work, "You know, I was told once that clouds like that mean tornado weather..." After finding out that had been told to her by someone that worked for the Navy and a hurricane researcher, I thought I would get a REAL good look at those clouds and get them memorized.
Then, Dominic came home this afternoon and said, "Man, it was weird. There were SO many deer out. We saw all sorts of deer from the bus on the ride home.
Ranger brain goes **Click. Whirr. Clickety. CLICK!**
Why?
Here's why... Deer have two major senses which they use to stay alive in the wilderness, hearing and smell. Which two senses are the most screwy in windy rainy weather? When weather like earlier today hits, as I understand it, most deer will find a place to curl up and stay safe. Two of their five senses have just been shut down so why tempt it? But, why oh why would deer be out on a day like today? More importantly, why would they be out in such numbers that a bus full of hormone flooded teenagers would notice them? Remember, everything is connected. My initial thought was that there was a snowstorm on the way. Or, there was something on the way that would cause them to operate in hazardous conditions with two of their five senses non-functional. You don't go out to get food and forage in bad weather unless you think its going to get so bad you may not get to eat for awhile anyway. So, I went online and checked out the weather.
Oh.
Quick math put the supposed tornado over us in 15-20 minutes. No basement in our hourse and no vehicle to outrun it with. Anyone I could call would be driving through it to get to us. Nope. We were here and we were in it. Reports on the internet and the radio had it on the ground and moving directly at us at 65 miles an hour. I calmly started getting things ready and waited a few minutes before telling Dominic to turn on his radio and get on his shoes. Then, I had the little ones get their shoes on after I had heard enough and I called the landlord, asked if we could hang out in their basement. He, of course, agreed but would not let me bring Pooka inside his house. This... sucked... so... hard. Dominic cleared out his closet, I got a blanket, and I made one of the hardest decisions I've made in a while. (Luckily, I was in "Captain" mode so the emotional stuff didn't screw with me till later.) I put Pooka in the closet with blankets and prayers. Looked at the clock and then the window for the hundreth time. Yep, there it was, right on time. No funnel cloud or anything, of course, but I could see the system. Flashlight. Blanket. Jacket. Knife. Lighter. Called Dirtgrrl, told here where we were going. At one point I could hear in her voice as she calculated driving time from work to home. I cut her off mid-thought, "Don't you dare even think about coming out here and driving in what is coming this way. I'll call ya when its clear and safe." Then, we were out the door and walking quickly up in the rain and the wind. Dominic got a good look at the front once we were outside and let out an expletive in front of the little ones which freaked them out.
"Dude," I said, putting my hand on his shoulder, "keep it cool. They see YOU freak out, they will freak out. Keep it cool..."
He nodded and apologized. "Sorry, man, that.. uh.. thats just really scary." I ruffled his hair and encouraged the smaller ones that it MIGHT get a little dicey but chances were real good it would miss us entirely. One of my number one rules with the kids, never lie to them about storms and bad things. Don't pull your hair and scream, "We're all gonna get sucked into HELL!" either. The latter doesn't do well for Frankie's nerves... Instead, I forced them to stand out in it for a second and I educated them a bit as to what they were seeing. I showed them the windwall, I showed them what we were looking for, and I showed them why what we were looking at was dangerous. It took about twenty seconds total and Bella looked at me and said, "Can you, uh, show us this later cause' well, I don't wanna die."
I called her a spoilsport.
It was one of the fastest moving and nastiest cells I've seen hit in quite some time. We were damn lucky that thing had not put a finger on the ground. Inside, and in their basement, it just seemed like a bad thunderstorm. I was watching it by the basement door and out of nowhere, the wind shifted direction like a crack from a bullwhip and all hell broke loose. Landlord and I were both keeping our eyes on it and when it happened he and I both just shook our heads in unwritten Ranger speak. "Well... shit," was what we were saying to each other. The wind, which had been coming dominantly from the southwest cracked around and started blasting at us from the northwest and then a joint in his house popped. Then the lattice work blew off the back porch. Then a cow flew past the window.
No, just joking about the cow.
Behind us, the kids played with the landlord's girl and her dollies. Dominic was staying just behind us but looking outside as well. I asked Dominic to keep an eye on the kids and to get them under the table if I yelled. (They were at the table anyway.) He said ok and the two adults went upstairs to get a better look at the oncoming wind. Wow. I've been in worse but it was still pretty cool. *cheesy grin* The wind was blasting directly into the front of the landlord's front screened-in porch, coming directly from the North. I watched it a minute, at how ferocious it was rippling the screen, thrashing the big maple tree. I said, "Well, I think I'm done standing here," and headed back downstairs. His reply was, "Yeah, good idea." I marked the time and sure enough, it was on-time and on-target. Hats off to the National Weather Service and the coverage that Channel 6 was doing. Amazing stuff. I waited for a freight train noise. I waited to see a tree get snapped in two. I waited to see a cow. It really would have been proper at that point it was so fierce. I wouldn't have been surprised to see Bill Paxton flying by in a red pick-up truck yelling, "We got debris!"
And then, it was over. Just like that. *snaps fingers* Ten minutes later the satellite TV was back on and showing us that it was past us and east of Highway 37. (Later, the same big cell that streaked right over the top of us went on to terrorize Nashville and several points further northeast with several confirmed touchdowns. I'm still getting all the reports...) Of course, my first thought at that point was getting back to check on Pooka. Bundled the kids up, talked to them about what happened, ("That was fun, we got to play with her Toys!"), and tried to show them that it was important we took shelter but, hey, it really wasn't that bad, right? They agreed, it was fun! We got home and I immediately released Pooka from his closet shelter. I had HATED having to make that choice, that choice that was not a choice. Stay here with the kids and maybe get torpedoed or take my chances with Pook in a closet and get the kids to safety. It sucked. It sucked hard. Its called a command decision for a reason and they SUCK! But, when they happen, you just have to make the best call you can make with the time you have.
Regardless, he was very relieved and did not hold me accountable in any way or form. Actually, I believe he knew what was going on and was ok with it.
He got a nice treat.
And then....
I baked some fucking chocolate chip cookies!
I watched the TV and the radar and saw we were due for another wave in the evening. By the time Dirtgrrl got home and dinner was almost done, the new storms moving in looked like they were calming down. Dinner with a returned Dirtgrrl was specatacular grilled cheese sam'iches, raw baby carrots, and some tomato soup witch-doctered up a bit with some Coyote cook'n skills. We talked about our day, about the storm, and then, some went to clean the kitchen and others went to go watch Teen Titans. It was such a damn fine dinner/evening with the warm food, the wind blowing, and the outdoor chimes chiming that we failed to notice the second tornado warning go up. *sigh* Matter of fact, Dirtgrrl and I were in the living room and I was saying something when the rain, and wind, outside...just....stopped. I stopped what I was saying. She froze. I froze. She looked at me. I looked at her. And then, I literally dove for the remote and got it on Channel 6 and the radar. Oh neato! Look! There's a big red blob just East of our house and moving away! *rolls eyes*
Yeah, so much for being prepared. To think, my last meal would have been grilled cheese, tomato soup, and chocolate chip cookies. I can only thin--
Wait.
That's not that bad, really.
Anyway, what we had heard, well, NOT heard, was the backside of the front bringing us all these wonderful storms. A backside of a front that literally toggled like hot and cold. So, drastic of a change in fact that the western backside of the front was only a very thin band of green on the radar that was like a small shell around a big orange, red, and violet blob. No tapering off, no easy release of the pressure, nope, just BAM! the storm is done.
And, I said toggle of hot/cold for a reason. Matter of fact, I said it for a reason so I could hook this all up to what started it for us, the deer. You see, the deer were not out in bad weather because the tornado's and thunderstorms were coming. Well, they were, but what they were REALLY responding to is the cold front that will drop on us overnight. The same cold front that powered all these storms today. Tomorrow's forecast -- High of 39 degrees F with a very very light chance of some snow flurries.
Bundle up, chickies. All that today was just Summer and Fall's way of saying, "See ya next year!" I went out to the East and waved goodbye to them. "Take care, thanks for everything!" With a ferocious firing of guns, Autumn, and Summer who was sort of hanging out a bit with Autumn if you hadn't noticed, have both retired over the Eastern horizon.
Now, tonight, the winds of Winter's Advance Guard are causing Casa Big Sky to creak a bit from time to time. I can still hear the light chiming of the wind chimes we have by the kitchen window and by the driveway. I'm a'munching on chocolate chip cookies and sipping tea. The first traces of a chill are seeping into a country house that is quiet, peaceful. A completely zonked out Pooka is to my right, snoring just a bit no doubt,and no doubt running through dreams where he chases and kills all manners of tornadoes and, well, cheeseburgers. Cause, well, he's Pooka and he would not be Pooka if he didn't chase the cheeseburgers!
I love it out here.
Hello, Winter! How tha' Hell are ya???