As a youngster, I always loved watching a good ol’ fashioned thunderboomer. Lightning flashes, rolls of thunder, wind, pounding rain, power going out, nature in all her fury, a symphony for the senses. I still do enjoy watching them as long as I am not driving in them. The conditions all day seemed to forecast such a storm sometime. Temps in the 90s, warm wind, just the right conditions. At work, the Krispy Kreme deliveryman informed me that there were tornado watches out and calling for up to quarter inch hail. Shortly after, the sky began to darken. When I got off my shift, I walked home changed clothes into something a lot cooler than jeans and a polo shirt and went uptown for dinner. While eating, the tornado siren sounded announcing the spotting of a funnel cloud. We got up and went home; but almost as quickly the storm had passed. A larger town to the south of us was not so fortunate as they had downed power lines and power outages all over. We had extended family members come “just in case” with kids from 2-13 (I think the 13 year old was more scared than any of them). If I had been their age, I probably would have made noises to instill further fear into them but I guess I am beyond that (but thinking about it entered my mind briefly). Sad to say that the storm here was not much to write home about, but fun to imagine… no need to head to the basement and break out the flashlights for some fun in the dark. DRAT!!!
I too love storms, though the kids get so freaked especially T that she gets the other ones all worked up, and it’s becoming less fun year after year. I used the siren as a reason to break up a fight between them – they just tune out my yelling or hearing their names anymore, so I was like, see, this is an emergency, you need to be quiet, stop fighting, and pay attention, but it backfired because T just totally freaked out and started almost hyperventilating. I dont’ think there was actually a funnel cloud spotted – that’s what they said on tv – just a rotating storm, so one could have dropped at any time. They really need to use the siren a little more sparingly though since it’s gone off a few times w/o a tornado, ppl are in the habit of just going outside to gape – my husband being one of them. Not the wisest decision if there were to actually be a tornado!
I too, love to go outside and watch… walk around close by and see what is happening.