D8 TORNADOS

[jotsalot]

Okay, so I'm at work and it's been pretty rainy all day and the rain gets harder so my co-workers and I assume it's going to start hailing soon. I get a text from my dad, who works at an ambulance company, telling me there are some tornado warnings out. Which is kind of scary in it's own but it happens at least twice ever summer, but I live in the

Comments

[jai]

Oh man, I am glad everything turned out ok in the end! I can't imagine what a tornado is like, and I never want to be near one. We get them in some parts of Pennsylvania sometimes, but the area where I live has so many large mountains they usually can't touch down or stay down because the terrain changes too often.

Though I remember when I was, I think, about 15, there was this summer where we had warnings for them at least once a week and a few did apparently manage to touch down, though never anywhere near me, thankfully!

So is this where your idea about the tornado chasers and their abduction and subsequent loss of their child came from? hehe.

[jotsalot]

I think we get an occasional one because we have all the plains wind and then the crazy currents from the mountains all interacting. But you live near mountains! That's so exciting; we have soemthing in common. XDD

I think the scariest thing about tornadoes are the sirens. They sound like the ones in movies for bomb raids.

And haha, yes, you got me. My story was definitely inspired by my tornado day. :P

[jai]

I live near tons of mountains! Two of them are owned by my family...we were a farming family with a lot of land til my generation.

Ours ARE the air raid sirens, cause we don't get tornadoes except once in a blue moon really, so they aren't going to install anything else. And actually, since we don't get them, we don't have shelters other than bomb shelters, so most people have to go to those anyway if there's a real threat. It probably feels like a war movie...I know the air sirens are weird, but if I'm at home, I just go in the basement, I don't have to go to a shelter.

I still loved that story, lol!

[jotsalot]

Your family owns MOUNTAINS?? *slinks back to poverty*

That's so crazy. You know, the sirens are scary and maybe I'm a weirdo but sometimes those things give me wicked story ideas. My imagination goes off like, "Imagine this..." and "Imagine that..." haha.

It must be so pretty out there. As far as traveling east, I've only been to Dayton, Ohio. I guess I was in MN for a quick minutes...but really, I haven't traveled out east at all. I always thought it would be cold!

[jai]

Ah well, it sounds more...expensive and glorious than it is, really. We have a LOT of mountains around here, and the two we own we have had practically since the area was settled. My particular branch of the family moved to the US not long ago, but another branch had been here for ages! They left this area and gave my branch all the land they'd had since the dawn of the US, so we have mountains! Exciting story...except not really!

Oh man, despite me not being a writer, I have a very overactive imagination, so I can hear you on that one.

If you like forests and such, it is very beautiful here. We have a lot of clean, pretty nature. Ohio? I've only been there a couple of times...it seems to flat and boring. If you ever find yourself in my part of PA, I would be happy to show you the good stuff only locals know about!

[jotsalot]

*sings a song about how late her replies are on LJ*

You know, I probably will come to PA within the next year. One of my friends just got accepted to Penn State for her masters, and there's an professor there I really want to meet. It would be really neat to meet you. XDDD

I'd be really interested to see how your mountains differ from the Rockies here.

[jai]

Hey, better late than never! I certainly don't worry about it.

State College (where Penn State is) is only about 45 minutes from me! I am a Penn State graduate myself! I can definitely come up to State College and meet up with ya! Or you're welcome to find your way out to the boondocks where my cats and I live!

I've never seen the Rockies except on TV and in movies and such, but they are much bigger than our range, the Alleghenies. Because ours are much smaller, we don't get snow caps or anything (not year-round, anyway), and the whole mountain is covered with forest. Forgive me if the Rockies are like that too and Hollywood has given me a crap perception!

[jotsalot]

How fun!!! Well if I come up there I will totally harass you to be my guide, hahahaha. LOL, for some reason your last sentence made my picture you in a lodge on a secluded mountain, sitting on a porch with a cat looking forlorn, hahahaha. Awe.

LOL, the Rockies are a bit like that too. Usually they
re snow-capped, unless there's been a drought, but these days when you drive up there, aside from the foliage there are also little veins of the remnants of forest fires. Aside from this year, the past few have been horrifically dry up there. But I think your mountains would have that rich green color because it's super moist. I bet they're amazingly beautiful.

*__*

[jai]

Hey, I grew up in these here mountains, so whatever you might be interested in checking out around here, I almost definitely know about it. Including a few really interesting locales in PA that even many of the other locals do not know about! Well, we don't live that far out, though my parents do! And...I have two cats...or, actually, right now I am fostering a mommacat and her kittens, so I have even more. Those are leaving in September, though.

That's interesting to know. I have never even flown over the Rockies, so I know absolutely nothing about them. I always picture them very bare and craggy and snow-covered. But you are right, our mountains are covered in verdant forest. After all, the whole woods thing is in the name of the state!

Do definitely let me know if you come out this way. I promise I'm not a crazy ex-con. lol!