June 10, 2008

Hold on to Your Ass, Toto!

oh boy...wow, I've really not posted for like...forever. I'm still around, and have been poking my nose into your blogs though I've been rather quiet.

It's been a crazy Spring and early Summer here...tons of storms. I know many have heard about the monsterous F5 tornado that wiped out a whole town near here...but there have been many more of those twisters around...many more than usual.

Well, the night before last, I met one face to face. We had dropped D off at his grandma and grandpas as he's spending the week camping with them and was heading home. We could see a nasty storm coming in but thought we'd get out of there in time...hahaha. WRONG.

As I drove north, it started raining. Then it rained harder. Then it started raining sideways, so hard that I could barely see 5 feet in front of the car. The wind was blowing hard and I was having a terrible time staying on the road. As we approached an intersection where I could go right to my parents' place or left to go home, suddenly construction signs and those big orange barrels started flying across the highway. I turned right and opted to return to my parents' house. When I got there, after 10-15 minutes of white-knuckled struggle to stay on the road, I found them in their basement with the weather radio blaring tornado warnings...the twister had just passed over the spot where I was.

I knew it was a tornado, but never saw the funnel as there was just too much rain. Talk about an adrenalin rush, though...woo! I think there are still fingernail marks in my steering wheel.

So now, we get to deal with the floods...they're closing the down town bridges tonight. Just help me pray we don't lose power and water again. Now, THAT sucked.