Imagine a cranky lady on a bicycle in a wind storm...
For years now, dating back to when we still had dogs, my mom and I have sung the Wicked Witch of the West theme song to each other. We used to sing it when Gizmo would come trotting by to be nosy; now we sing it when there's something foreboding or basically one of us comes upon the other when we're not wanted. That sort of thing.
That song very easily could've been in my head on the way to work on Monday. I can't believe how close I was to driving through a tornado, weak as it was. Five minutes later, and I likely would've been right there. The rain I had to drive through at times was pretty heavy, and given that it was an EF0 tornado, that's weak enough that it likely couldn't have been seen through the rain.
Ever since Tuesday, when someone came into work and mentioned a tree down nearby, I've been on the lookout for such things. Wednesday I didn't go into work, so there was always the chance that things had been cleaned up by the next time I drove by, but between what I have been able to see and the track of the storm put out by the National Weather Service, it matches up. The intersection the tornado crossed has wooded areas on the west side of the street that decidedly are sparser than they used to be. The northwest corner has visible tree and branch damage. The southwest corner, there's long grass on one edge and it's down in places. It also seems like there is less vegetation in there, whereas before it was pretty thick. I've never been able to see much of anything in there since it was so dense, and now I'm able to see individual trees. It's pretty freaky, to be honest with you. Like, I drive through this intersection daily. I'm a minor weather nerd so this is just wild that I came as close as I did to it. This likely played a slight role in my anxiety reaching the breaking point this week, too, like this was just enough to finally tip me over the edge. I didn't need one more concern on my plate. But it's over, and today's potential bad weather didn't pan out up this way--one model predicted nearly a foot of snow, and we only had flurries--so I can exhale slightly.
That song very easily could've been in my head on the way to work on Monday. I can't believe how close I was to driving through a tornado, weak as it was. Five minutes later, and I likely would've been right there. The rain I had to drive through at times was pretty heavy, and given that it was an EF0 tornado, that's weak enough that it likely couldn't have been seen through the rain.
Ever since Tuesday, when someone came into work and mentioned a tree down nearby, I've been on the lookout for such things. Wednesday I didn't go into work, so there was always the chance that things had been cleaned up by the next time I drove by, but between what I have been able to see and the track of the storm put out by the National Weather Service, it matches up. The intersection the tornado crossed has wooded areas on the west side of the street that decidedly are sparser than they used to be. The northwest corner has visible tree and branch damage. The southwest corner, there's long grass on one edge and it's down in places. It also seems like there is less vegetation in there, whereas before it was pretty thick. I've never been able to see much of anything in there since it was so dense, and now I'm able to see individual trees. It's pretty freaky, to be honest with you. Like, I drive through this intersection daily. I'm a minor weather nerd so this is just wild that I came as close as I did to it. This likely played a slight role in my anxiety reaching the breaking point this week, too, like this was just enough to finally tip me over the edge. I didn't need one more concern on my plate. But it's over, and today's potential bad weather didn't pan out up this way--one model predicted nearly a foot of snow, and we only had flurries--so I can exhale slightly.