Thursday, July 22, 2010

Crazy Things Happen in Threes (Part 1)

What a crazy day on Wednesday! 

The boys are in a different daycare for the next two weeks, as my regular daycare provider is on vacation.  The new person lives in a different part of town, a bit of a distance from the house.  (But it is just two weeks, so we will make it work!)  The boys love it there, she has a son that's Will's age so he's been excited to have someone to play with.  And Sean...well Sean's happy just about anywhere!  He's a happy, smiley guy, that one.  :)  I've been leaving work a little early to pick them up by 5:15pm, and was on my way there last night.  I was on the phone with an old friend who's just moved to Florida and driving along one of the main drags.  The sky is gray, and you can just tell that it is going to rain cats and dogs, eventually!  (And before anyone asks, yes, I do have an in-dash bluetooth so I wasn't holding the phone to my ear.)  I heard this strange noise and asked her to hold on.  It was this alarm-like sound.  At first I thought "Oh, the next town over must have a volunteer fire department."  But it made me uneasy just the same.  Having been in Wisconsin recently and having a discussion about "tornado alley" with our friends out there, I heard my friend Jen's words in my head:  "Oh, you can't miss a tornado siren.  They're very distinct." 

I turned on the daycare's street, parked in front of the house and got out of the car.  Suddenly I heard it again....and then my worst fear:  a recording on full blast:  "Attention!  Attention!  A tornado warning has been issued for _______  County!"  WHAT????????  First of all, I'm absolutely surprised that the city has a tornado alarm.  Second.....WHAT?????  I ran into her house, where my boys were playing and they had the news on.  I mean, this whole thing really freaked me out!  The illuminated map on the news showed our area, and I cringed to see that it had been spotted nearby.  We stayed put for a bit, and then the tornado warning ended very quickly.    Then came the rain......and man, did it rain hard!   It was difficult loading the kids in the car in such hard rain, but I got it done.

I'm so not thrilled that we brought this piece of the Midwest home with us!  I'll take a massive New England snowstorm any day!!

2 comments:

Alicia said...

Yes, that was a crazy day. I drove from one end of the city to the other and about 10 traffic lights were out (some of which were large intersections). And drivers here are scary to begin with...add some lights that are out and watch out! But we are a hardcore group of knitters, I will say that :-)

Anonymous said...

Oooh. That IS scary. Glad to hear you're all safe. We get Tornado watches during Monsoon season sometimes, but imagine our suprise when we had one this past March. Eeeek...No basements to hide in here in AZ!