You’re probably wondering what the hell I’m doing here when I am up to my eyeballs in goose livers, but my housemate and I decided to take a break from all the poultry guts and celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary per our usual tradition of running off to the casino and spending the night. And with past annual visits resulting in power outages and thievery, we thought, what could possibly happen this time?
And so it was I’m yanking the one arm bandit’s chain when my phone vibrates urgently at me to tell me about a tornado warning and severe thunderstorms IN MY AREA and to seek immediate cover and go to the basement and stay away from the windows and all kinds of other tornado tips and tricks for survival.
And because we live in a town where weather and natural disasters never happen, we immediately ran up to our 16th floor hotel room and flipped on the nearest electrical appliance that we here in the capital city call the boob tube:
Oh my gosh, it really WAS a tornado warning in our area, as it turns out. And the whole town was talking about it. And we flew to the window and threw open the curtains and pressed our faces to the glass to see what we could see.
It’s the same with earthquakes. I feel the slightest vibration and I throw up my arms and scream “Whee!!” like I’m suddenly on Space Mountain at Disneyland. And I must have gotten in free because there is NO WAY I’m paying $150 to get into the Magic Kingdom these days. Are you kidding me? Why would I pay that kind of money to spend most of my day waiting in line? What was I saying? Oh yeah. The tornado.
So, because I’ve never been squashed or hurled or stomped or even scratched by a natural disaster, apparently my brain doesn’t register danger.
So there I was gawking out the window and exclaiming Wow! and Cool! and other lame exclamations (like probably even Groovy!) because we could see the very thing they were showing on the TV but from the dark side:
Can you see it? No?
Here’s a closer look:
Now can you see it?
So yeah, while the TV ticker was telling us to stay inside and hide under the beds and whatnot, we were oooh-ing and ahhh-ing like a couple of idiots, watching funnel clouds on the TV and from our window. And the dude in the TV station helicopter clearly had a better view than us and is it just me, or does the funnel cloud make the scene look like the meadow below is trying to say something?
Marvelous, what a website it is! This web site gives useful information to us, keep it up.
Wow that was strange. I just wrote an incredibly long comment but after I clicked
submit my comment didn’t appear. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again.
Anyways, just wanted to say great blog!
What an adventure! Reminds me of the time my husband, a native of New Jersey, visited me in California and ran outside during an earthquake to “see it.”
Great to meet you at the EB Writer’s Workshop!
Awww, thanks for stopping by, Lisa! Great to meet you too!
Hey Margaret. I’ve never seen a tornado (UK weather = rain, as you know) but you make it sound entertaining. But forget the cow. WHERE’S THE GOAT?! Indigo x
I ESPECIALLY laughed at this. Here in Kansas, we too, would be going outside and looking up at the clouds…err funnels…saying things like “I bet that baby is an E4. All the neighbors would be gathered out on the curb with their smartphone cameras trying to line of the shot. Oh at some point, someone might say “I guess it’s time to go get in the basement, now.”
It’s not that were naive to how we are suppose to act but funnel clouds are common enough (and usually don’t touch down) that we collectively have gotten rather complacent about it.
***Note to Margaret..even as blase as I am to tornadoes, in general…16th floors up might be ill advised. That is a long way down to get to a cellar.
BTW, LOVE the name of your article. You are SO clever. =p
You have such an exciting life.
I’ve lived in FL for almost 10 years and (knock on wood) have not had to live through a hurricane once. We have had some tornado warnings and I have my hurricane/tornado box ready as of June 1st every year.
Glad you were safe. HUGGLES!
Happy Anniversary! Fireworks are just never enough for a girl like you, Margaret!
Because there is nothing you won’t do for a good blog post. How did the two of you manage to stay alive for 14 years?
Happy Anniversary, my friend!
I know right? Thank you, Jayne!
I remember that feeling when I saw a couple water spouts in Florida. I started to step out of the car to get a better look when hubby reminded me it was still storming. Normally I’m afraid of lightning and I have a healthy respect for tornadoes. Still it was fascinating.
water spouts? Is that the same as a funnel cloud?
Yep, just over water instead of land.
Where’s the cow? Isn’t there supposed to be a cow?
Yes, I believe there is supposed to be a cow. Maybe that’s why it never touched down into a tornado.
Holy Toledo…er, TORNADO, Batman. That thing is about to rape that meadow.
But did it?
It actually never did. The meadow escaped unscathed. Lucky meadow.