Tornado time

Just a quick post to let everyone know all is well in my neck of the woods. We did have a tornado here yesterday - a very, very rare occurence! The last one was 36 years ago in April, 1972. I guess we made the national news, and a couple of you have emailed me to make sure everything is OK.

It was a strange day weather wise - that's for sure. Dark clouds in the morning, which cleared to such beatiful blue skies and sunshine at about 10:30 that I took the dog out for a walk. Shortly after we returned dark clouds recovered the sky. Around noon thunder and lightening started - so strange for this time of year. I was watching out the kitchen window, seeing the sky grow darker and darker. Torrential rain started falling, turning to hail within a minute. A very strong wind started whipping the trees every which way. I turned to Shadow and told him that if I didn't know better - and if we lived in the midwest - I'd think this was tornado weather.

About 5 minutes later the phone rang. It was my daughter asking me if I knew a tornado warning had been issued for our area. I said no, and asked her whether any funnel clouds had been seen. That's when I learned that a tornado had already touched down just west of here, had come directly down the main street a couple blocks away, and had risen back into the air just moments after the path crossed about a thousand feet south of the house.

Needless to say my plans for the afternoon went right out the window. I sat in front of the TV all afternoon watching reports of all the storm cells over the area and film of the damage done. Thank God no one was hurt. We were very lucky in that regard. The boathouse and all the boats of the rowing club for all the local middle schools and high schools were completely demolished - debris strewn over a very large area. An hour earlier or a couple hours later and those building would have been full of kids and adults. Lots and lots of roof and building damage and dozens and dozens of uprooted trees, but no loss of life. I listened to many eye witness accounts of people dodging flying shopping carts in the grocery parking lot and cars being spun around in the middle of the street - we were all so lucky it wasn't worse.

At least I got all but one side of the binding on Spare Parts stitched on. Should finish that quilt today.

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Gratitudes:
1. Calm after the storm
2. Friends checking on us
3. A tall glass of orange juice.
4. A sparkling, clean smelling vehicle
5. A delightful guild program featuring Eleanor Peace Bailey